Into Blue Clouds
by lulgijak
Summary: A young woman from Grass accidentally discovers romance in the arms of a Leaf ninja from an illustrious clan; little did she realize how drastically one night would change the rest of her life, but for better or worse - only she can decide. OC pairing.
1. Tenmei

_It feels good to have posted something once again after over half a year! I still intend to finish_ **Shikamaru's Ninja Wagon**_ and I'm sorry to anyone who's gotten tired of waiting for an update on it...I've had some issues with my Word program for a while, but I'll get it done. _

_Anyway, I hope this story will provide an fun read for anyone interested. As I mentioned in my summary, this story is primarily concerned with original characters - which I confess that even I'm usually not very interested in reading about - but has a specific time and setting in the Naruto universe. Cannon characters do make an appearance every now and then, but only in supporting roles. The action takes place specifically in the ninja village of Grass (I've decided to also call the country Grass as well, even though it has yet to be given an official name in the manga) some time a little before the chunin exam and Orochimaru's invasion in part one. Feedback and comments are welcome and appreciated - enjoy!_

CHAPTER 1

"Hey, are you alright?"

The quiet tremor of concern in the voice came as a suprise even as the stranger placed a light hand on the back of her shoulder. Takara opened her mouth to answer, but instead burst into tears. For a moment all she could do was sob and clutch her injured ankle.

She had no idea what had possessed her to run away from the theives in the first place - her feet had simply acted on their own. The full realization of how stupid she'd been now dawned on her; they probably would have been satisfied just to take the small ammount of money she had with her and then been on their way. Now, as it was, she found herself in a throbbing heap on the ground, lucky to be alive. The vagabonds who'd been persuing her currently lay crumpled and motionless nearby, making up two ragged piles on the forrest floor. Were they dead?

Her awareness was suddenly brought back to the stranger still standing behind her: out of nowhere he'd appeared and done - someting - but she'd still been facedown where she'd landed and it had all been over so quickly. The young woman swallowed the reaminder of her sobs and attempted to pull herself together.

"Here, let me take a look," he said even as he knelt down in front of her and a pair of thin hands coaxed her fingers from her throbbing ankle.

"Hmm, well it's definitely not broken."

Takara wondered how he'd come to that coclusion so quickly. She glanced up at him for the first time and gazed into a pair of the palest eyes she'd ever seen.

His face was delicate and framed by a halo of light, whispy, pinkish-brown hair, but the first thing her eye went to was the metal band across his forehead - the leaf insignia stamped into it as plain as day. Suddenly a lot of things made more sense: he was a ninja - a _Leaf_ ninja. Simultaneously, it raised even more troubling questions which must have registered on her face because he immediately slid his hands back from her and raised them in a nonthreatening gesture.

"Relax, I don't mean you any harm." He followed her gaze to where the would-be robbers still lay. "They're not dead," he assured with a slight smile that did little to put her at ease, "though they're certainly not going anywhere for a while."

"I-I'm sorry," she plucked up her courage enough to stammer, "who are you if you don't mind?"

He paused for a moment, as if trying to decide whether he should answer. "My name is Tenmei" he finally said, "and you are?"

"Takara," she replied as she gingerly shifted weight onto her injured leg, testing its capacity - she wanted to be leaving soon and she still had at least twenty minutes left before she reached home again. A sharp bolt of pain sent her crouching swiftly back to the ground. Tears of pain and frustration were stinging her eyes once again; why hadn't she simply given those two men her money? she would be broke but heading safely back to Kusagakure instead of hunched in a ditch with a sprained ankle and alone with a strange foreign ninja.

The one called Tenmei calmly watched her futile struggle a few moments longer before finally thrusting an assertive hand down to her. "Take it ," he commanded when she hesitated. Takara reluctantly did so and he pulled her lightly up.

"Now let me ask a question," he posed, situating her arm securely around his shoulder and pressing his hand to her waist, "what business does a lone girl have wondering through bandit-infested woods?"

Despite her situation, Takara rankled at the question. She could think of quite a few choice words to answer him with - firstly that she wasn't a 'girl' but a fully grown woman who'd been doing fine on her own for quite some time now, thank - you - very - much, secondly that she'd been traveling these woods for most of her life and this was the first time she'd ever encountered any sort of 'bandits' in it. she settled instead for, "I wasn't _wondering around_, I was taking a short-cut back home."

"Back home," he repeated. They were now ambling carefully up the incline that Takara had fallen into. "And 'home' would be Kusagakure?"

"How did you know," she asked.

"It's the direction you were heading in before those two started chasing you."

"How do you know that," she repeated more vehemently, "were you spying on me?"

He made a slight noise that might have been a laugh, "No not on you in particular, but I do notice a lot of things."

"And what about you? You belong out here even less than I do; why are you hiding out in Grass? Don't tell me you just came here to hang around and rescue damsels in distress."

Together they reached the top of the steep ditch and he pulled her up the remainder of the way. "Sorry, that's confidential," he replied.

000

The walking was slow and torturous and Takara was beginning to worry about how long the trip would take now that she was oblidged to rely on Tenmei as a crutch. He said little, and she found herself wondering what was going on behind his placid, colorless eyes. 'Why are you doing this', she wanted to ask. Did he have ulterior motives? She willed herself to relax a little, if that were the case it probably would have been obvious by now.

Not that she wasn't grateful for his help, but a lifetime of living in close proximity to Grass Ninja had instilled in her a strong suspicion of shinobi from other countries - especially those from the five great nations - like Earth and Fire. Takara still had vivid memories of the destruction that ravaged the land after the Third Secret War to remind her of how quickly her country had become a foot bridge in the power struggle between those two giants. Stone, of course, had easily been the cruelest (Kusa had always been their dog) but the people of Grass Country were largely fed up with foreighn powers all together.

"So you are in the middle of some sort of mission I suppose," she spoke up in an attempt at casual conversation.

"That's right," he affirmed and turned a sober look on her, "What about you - on a mission as well?"

"Um no, I'm not a ninja," (She would have thought that was the most obvious thing in the world.)

The wide grin that suddenly spread across his face looked as out of place on such a prim mouth as a glob of barbeque sauce would. He was mocking her. Heat rising to her cheeks, she made a noise of disgust before turning her head pointedly in the other direction. Now she could feel his shoulders quivering underneath her arm and her irritation quickly escalated into anger.

"What is so funny," she demanded, whiping her head back round to face him.

"I'm very sorry," he appologised, however, far from looking contrite, Tenmei looked positively mirthful. "It's simply that your face turned as red as your hair just now," and his statement dissolved into a brief stint of obnoxious chuckling.

Takara's hand itched to slap grin off his face. "Well, I'm happy to have provided you with so much amusement," she shot back in a tone that indicated he should get bitten by a venemous reptile.

His idiotic sniggering only increased with her anger, "Good, because I don't think I've laughed this much in weeks!"

The insulted woman had had just about enough, she immediately stopped and attempted to pull away from him. "I can get back the rest of the way by myself - I don't need you!"

He did his best to keep a hold on her while still guffawing. "Alright, alright, don't struggle - you'll only hurt yourself worse."

"Let go of me! I don't care what happens, I can't stand being with you for one more minute."

The ninja's laughter was now subsiding as he tried to pacify his unwilling burden. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you; please calm down." He held her for a moment with his large pearly eyes that still sparkled with residual merriment, "Listen, if you'd like I can get you to your village quicker so you don't have be near me any more; would that be okay?"

She paused in the middle of her struggling, "How would you do that?"

Before she could even register what was happening, her feet had been swept out from under her and she was lying bridal-style in his arms. She let out a cry of shock, "What are you doing; put me down!"

"It'll be quicker this way," he assured her, "we'll be there in no time." And without giving her the opportunity to protest any further, he lit up and into the trees with her.

They traveled for what seemed like only a few minutes, the entire time of which Takara kept her eyes tightly shut, then without warning they stopped. Takara opened one cautious eye and looked around; they were in front of the entrance to Kusagakure.

"Here we are," he announced unnecessarily.

"Tha-that was quick."

"I said it would be," replied the ninja, lowering her carefully to her feet once again. "However, I'm afraid you'll have to find someone else to take you the rest of the way."

She frowned questioningly at him, "Is that so?"

"I don't have clearance to enter Grass's hidden village."

"I see," Takara nodded, "That's fine, I'm sure I can manage on my own at this point." She hesitated, "Um, I don't think I thanked you for everything you've done - I mean I'm sure I've caused you a lot of trouble..."

The man's expression remained blank, and she found herself sqirming under his piercing gaze. An extremely awkward moment (at least for her) passed as neither of them spoke - then -

"Takara!"

The red-headed woman started at the familiar adolecent squawk, her head jerking up. Above them, perched on one of the massive bamboo posts that made up the wall of the Village Hidden in the Grass, stood a scruffy-looking genin surveying the two with a disgruntled look.

"Ah Hiro! Good to see you; I'm back."

With a giant leap, the boy left the pole and landed effortlessly in front of them. His dark eyes traveled down the two, pausing at the hand that Tenmei still held against the woman's waist, then continuing to the leg that Takara was favoring. He looked sharply at Takara, "What happened to your foot," and without waiting for a reply, returned his accusing glare on the Leaf-nin in the manner of a judge about to deliver the death sentence.

"Hiro relax, I'm okay," she tried to assure him, "I just fell and sprained my ankle and this man helped me home."

Hiro snorted and thrust his hand out for her to take. Once she'd been transferred safely over to his posession, the boy steered her toward the entrance of the village. Takara cast a final glance over her shoulder at Tenmei, who stared after her wearing a faint smirk on his lips, then they were within the walls of Kusa.

Suddenly the thirteen-year-old rounded on her, "I knew you shouldn't have gone by yourself - what was that Leaf ninja doing with you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Obviously he was helping me get back here - what did you think he was doing?"

"How did you get hurt in the first place?"

"I told you; I fell."

He fixed her with a deeply suspicious glare, which she pointedly ignored. "Takara," he said, taking the tone of a parent loosing patience with a fibbing child, "you're not telling me something."

"What makes you say that," she retorted, trying her best to sound indignant instead of guilty.

Hiro narrowed his eyes back, challengingly, "you're terrible at hiding things - even if I wasn't highly trained in reading people."

Caught somewhere between amusement and annoyance, Takara supressed a grin. She knew all too well that he wouldn't let it go until she told him what happened, so she gave him the story of the robbers and Tenmei's intervention. All the while, the young ninja's expression grew stormier; "You shouldn't have gone by yourself," he repeated tersely.

"Hiro, it was a coincidence," reasoned the woman as her teenage companion helped her to the hospital, "I've made the trip between here and Ito plenty of times in the past without any problems; besides, you can't be there to protect me every moment of the day, you know."

"Well someone needs to," he muttered.

"Come on, I'm nearly twenty five years old," she jabbed her finger at him playfully, "give me some credit."

The boy shook his brunette head vigorously, "Nope, s'got nothing to do with that - you're still a walking disaster no matter how old you get."

"Hey!"

000

Takara's ankle was indeed only sprained, and with the help of medical ninjutsu along with bandages and a crutch, she was well on her way to recovery - which was good because she couldn't afford to miss any more work after her excursion to Ito.

The place Takara worked was a small, outside diner with an awning where she cooked and served lunch customers. Along with Hiro, she ran the business almost single-handedly. Besides the two of them, there were no other regular employees accept for the owner - an elderly man with no remaining family who, due to health problems, only worked part time.

When she arrived (more or less on time) the following morning, she found her young co-worker already setting up; he looked at her disapprovingly as she hobbled over. Before Hiro had come along half a year ago, it had just been she and Hayato Ojiichan, and she'd had to work everyday they were open as it was just too much work for the old man to do by himself.

At that time, they'd had major problems with robberies and it had seemed they might have to close down shop completely, but then suddenly the genin boy had appeared one day. Taking the iniative, he'd set up traps and captured the culprits who'd been stealing them blind. Hayato had been so overjoyed that he'd immediately offered the boy a job cleaning and busing tables.

To Takara's suprise, the seemingly promising young ninja had accepted the position; when she'd asked him about it he'd merely told her that he had no team anymore and needed work. Only later did she hear the whole story about Hiro's teammates and sensei's deaths during a botched mission from one of her ninja customers. Even the waitress knew that without a jounin teacher it was impossible for genin to register for the chunin exam or even recieve missions, and it was unlikely in the small village of Kusa that any other jounin would take on just a single student. Her unfortunate coworker had simply slipped through the cracks of the system, it seemed.

Still, Takara quickly learned that the genin didn't respond well to sympathy - whatever pain he felt over the loss of his team he kept to himself and did his job. He'd proven to be a dilligent worker, going above and beyond what was asked of him, and he hadn't completely given up ninja-ing either. During the six months he'd been employed there, they hadn't had another robbery - and what was more he'd taken it upon himself to become Takara's personal bodyguard. The woman still wasn't quite sure how she felt about the latter.

"What good are you going to be like that," he reprimanded, "you should have just stayed home and let me take care of everything here."

She snorted, "And let you do the cooking - we'd loose all our customers!"

He shot her a look as she made her way into the kitchen, but said nothing.

"Besides," she went on, "it's not like I'll have to do a lot of walking around - that's what I have you for."

000

The day was going well; customers were steady and Takara had plenty of work to keep herself occupied. However, she still found her mind continually wondering over rediculous things: every time she had to take a step on her crutch, or felt a throb in her ankle she was reminded once again of those misty white irisis gazing solicitously at her. She could still hear his sharp laughter cutting through her armor of pride, causing her cheeks once again to burn with humiliation. Did her face really turn as red as her hair? How rude of him to say that! Did he like red hair by any chance? Did he like _her_ hair? What had her hair even looked like yesterday?

"Stop being so pathetic, Takara," she muttered to herself, "it's not like you'll ever see him again; besides, he's a jerk - who cares what he thinks." Still, despite her dismissal of the whole incident, yesterday's events played relentlessly through her mind like a sappy song stuck on a repeat.

"Takara, I've got two orders of Tonjiru for table four," Hiro announced, snapping her back to reality.

"...Sure, coming right up."

He gave her what was probably his 80th suspicious look of the day, "Are you doing okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine!"

The boy looked unconvinced, but shrugged and picked up the bowls for table three.

The woman let out a long sigh and dabbed the sweat from her forehead. Usually she liked to walk around a bit and serve customers when she wasn't cooking since most of the dishes contained similar contents that could all be cooked in bulk. She'd initially planned to stay in the kitchen - if only to keep Hiro off her case - but now thought she would like to hobble around and greet people. So, grabbing the crutch firmly, she hefted herself through the doorway and out of the kitchen.

"Good afternoon, Goro-san," she greeted one of her regulars with a wave.

The chunin glanced up from his soup, "what happened to your foot, Takara-san," he asked.

"Ah this? I had a little - um - running accident - that's all."

He favored her with a kindly smile reserved only for small children and idiots - "you know, you should really be more careful where you're going - especially if you're going to run."

Takara returned the smile with some effort, "Yeah, I guess so." Having spent a large part of her life as a civilian in a ninja village, she'd built up something of a tollerance for the patronization that came along with it. Still, not wanting to push her limit too much, she decided to continue on her way.

She spent a few more minutes chatting with people before getting ready to head back into the kitchen once again when something unexpected nearly caused her to slip off her crutch and onto her face. There, strolling casually across the street, was the white-eyed Leaf ninja! What was he doing in Kusa? She sqinted hard in concentration - was she going crazy? Unfortunately, the mysterious person rounded the corner before she could come to any solid conclusion and she was left gawking at the empty place where he had been.

000

Five o'clock eventually came and together she and Hiro closed down the cafe for the evening.

"You sure are absent-minded today," he told her, wringing out his table cloth.

"Huh?"

"I said you sure are-" then he saw the grin spread across her face, "ha, ha - but seriously all you did was stare off into space all day."

"I did not; I was working the whole time!"

"Yeah, but that still doesn't mean you weren't off in another world," he insisted stubbornly. Finishing up, he turned to her and gave the long-suffering sigh of a weary babysitter saddled with a willful five-year-old, "Even though I already know what the answer will be, do you want me to walk you home?"

"Would you want me to walk _you_ home," she retorted.

Hiro's look soured like rancid milk, "Just forget it then...I'm going to go set the traps before we go."

Takara watched him walk away. Truthfully, she had no idea where he even lived; the boy never spoke of his parents or home life to anyone, and she didn't ask for fear of injuring his pride.

"Okay, I'm all finished," he told her as he returned, "let's go."

Takara's apartment was located on the edge of the village, its lone window offering a spectacular view of Kusa's enormous bamboo wall. Still, she didn't think much of it anymore; as far as living spaces went, it suited her needs and, for what it lacked in a view, gave her the opportunity to learn the latest village news from the guards stationed above.

Heading home on her crutch now, Takara absently followed the huge poles of grass to her doorstep as she usually did. She glanced up every now and then as she plodded along to see who was patrolling that evening. For the most part, it was the same people that were usually on the wall at that time of day, but one unfamiliar head in particular - or rather one that didn't belong there - caught her attention. The lank, salmony - brown tresses themselves were unmistakable.

Takara's mouth fell open even as the head dipped back down out of her line of sight. She considered hitting her injured her foot against the wall to jar herself out of whatever all-day hallucination she was in the middle of - why was this strange Leaf ninja suddenly following her everywhere she went?

"That's it; I need to get home and lay down," she mumbled, and turned to go without glancing back.

The next morning found the red head back in her kitchen at the diner preparing for the lunch rush while Hiro worked setting up the front of house. She was busy chopping onions and listening to the sound of her coworker setting up the cash register while her mind wandered ever again over recent events. Already her ankle was beginning to feel less sore - medical ninjutsu was amazing like that, nevermind the extra-strength aspirin she'd popped earlier just to be on the safe side. She almost felt as if she could ditch the agrivating crutch, at least while puttering around in the cramped kitchen space, but (to her credit) quickly dismissed the brash idea.

She only vaguely realized that the sound of money clinking in the register had stopped when she heard Hiro's shrill snarl.

"What are you doing here?"

There was a quiet reply that she couldn't make out, then the genin immediately shot back, "We're not open - go away."

Takara was shocked. She couldn't imagine who Hiro was speaking so rudely to; immediately she scrambled for the door. She popped her head out, but her reprimand died on her lips.

"I realize it's early," the man was saying to Hiro, "and I'm sorry for inconveniencing you, but I've been on guard duty all night and I'm very hungry; do you know of any place that's open right now?"

The woman let out an astonished gasp. The frustratingly elusive man who'd been haunting her for the past two days stood revealed at long last before the counter, glancing guilelessly up at her through pupiless eyes.

"_You_," she roared accusingly, jabbing her finger between those eyes like a dagger and causing them to cross slightly, "it _has_ been you all this time; I'm not crazy!"

His expression indicated he thought otherwise: "Hello, nice to see you again," he said mollifyingly to the breathless woman.

Takara quickly caught herself. With some effort, she returned to her senses enough to straighten up from the counter and remove her finger from his face before calmly continuing, "Sorry, that came out wrong. What I meant to ask was: why are you in Kusagakure; I thought you didn't have permission to enter?"

"I didn't at the time, but things are different now," he replied evenly.

"What 'things' are different," the almost forgotten boy now demanded directly behind her.

Takara turned to him, "Hiro, why don't you go count inventory...Now, please," she added before he could object. Hiro stomped off, muttering under his breath.

"Sorry about that; he just gets a little intense sometimes," she told the foreighn man.

He merely shrugged and smirked, "I think I know the type." His gaze slowly traveled to the crutch propped under her arm. "How's that sprain?"

"Oh, much better, thank-you. So what did you want to eat?"

"But I thought you weren't open," he remarked in suprise.

She smiled, "Well, Hiro already has the register set up so I don't see any reason why we can't serve you."

Fifteen minutes later, Tenmei selected a piece of chicken from his rice bowl and chewed it methodically. While he ate, Takara busied herself wiping the counter that was just as free of spots now as it had been last night when she'd cleaned it before closing. Every now and then, she glanced at him to see if he was enjoying his meal. He ate considerably more proper than the majority of her Grass customers she noticed, and swollowed each individual bite before taking the next one.

"I heard you say you were on guard duty," she said casually "were you on the wall last night?"

"Yes," he replied.

"I thought I saw you there yesterday - now I know I did."

He nodded as he finished another bite, "I saw you too, actually."

"You did?"

"Takara, I think we're almost out of peaches," called Hiro loudly.

"Okay, how many do we have left," she answered.

"Ummmmm," there was a long pause, "ten."

"That should be enough for the day, then."

"Are you sure, what if a lot of people want peaches; we'd be cutting it awfully close if we only have ten."

Takara rolled her eyes, "Fine then, get a couple more." She turned back to Tenmei, "So I wanted to ask you..."

"Hey! We're also almost out of mushrooms too!"

"No we aren't," she yelled back at him, "stop being a pest."

"You're the one who asked me to count inventory," he reminded her testily.

Before she could respond, a couple of lunch customers walked up and Takara was obliged to abandon her pristine counter and the Leaf ninja in order to take care of them. By the time she was done with the serving, Tenmei had already finished his meal and left.

000

"They certainly have some interesting clans in Konoha, don't they," one of the customers who was a guard from the wall was saying as Takara passed by much later.

"I remember seeing other members of that clan during the Third Secret War," his companion, a konoichi with deep shrapnel scars over the side of her neck and face commented, "Hyuuga, I think they're called."

"No wonder Leaf is so strong - with kekkei genkai like that in their midst - and then of course there's Uchiha..."

"Hyuuga," Takara repeated under her breath. She'd never heard of the clan before, but that was no big suprise (she'd never really been up on her who's who in the ninja world.) She atleast knew a little something about 'kekkei genkai', though. She remebered there had been, until recently, a clan in Grass possessing a bloodline limit - however that clan was no more and now the village had no such clans to speak of.

What sort of bloodline ability might Hyuuga have? The only other she'd ever heard of was the legendary Uchiha, another clan from Leaf who were feared by all for their eye jutsu that could read and copy an enemy's moves - sharingan. Did Tenmei possibly have a bloodline anything like that? On top of everything she still had no idea why he was even in the village! She silently resolved to seek him out as soon as Hayato Ojiichan arrived to relieve her. Hopefully, she'd be able to talk to him while he was still around.

The hours passed and, at last, the old man arrived. Having not heard about her recent inury yet, he wanted to know all the details of her mishap in the forrest. Takara gave only enough information for him to be satisfied - she was sure he'd get the colorful version from Hiro later - and bid the two of them good day.

First and foremost, she needed to pick up something for dinner, so Takara headed first for the store. Kusa was a small enough village that people regularly shopped and ate at the same places, so it wasn't strange that everyone at the grocer knew her by name and she, likewise, them. In fact, Takara probably knew close to everyone in town in some fashion or another - having lived there since she was around Hiro's age.

She'd originally intended only to pick up a couple of items, but found herself buying enough food that she might have been planning a moderate-sized dinner party. She couldn't say why, but she felt in the mood to cook gormet food - despite having already been behind a stove for the majority of the day. the only thing missing now was someone to cook _for,_ but she could always make something for Hiro (she was pretty sure no one other than herself ever cooked for the boy anyway.)

By the time the temporary invalid had lugged her bag of purchases to within a block of her home, however, she was beginning to have serious buyer's remorse.

Pausing to catch her breath, Takara cast another hopeful look toward the bamboo ramparts, but once again, she could not find Tenmei. The thought suddenly occured to her that she was being silly; the Leaf ninja obviously had work to do here and it was unrealistic of her to think he had the time or desire to answer all of her minor questions.

Hefting her great bag of provisions onto her shoulder with a sigh, she decided not to think about him anymore. Soon enough he would be gone and there simply wasn't enough time to get to know him after all. Forcing down the sudden aching feeling trying to claw its way into her throat, she entered her appartment and shut the door behind her.

That night, she dreamt of her parents: she was serving them tea at the diner when Stone nin appeared out of nowere and set fire to the place. She tried to reach her mom and dad, but the Iwa ninja grabbed them first; they demanded ransom from her. Before she could respond, however, a swarm of Leaf nin fell from the trees and onto the enemy shinobi. Sucking up the surronding fire into their mouths, they spewed it back out like a fountain over the inhabitants of Earth Coutry and her parents, engulfing them. She shreiked helplessly for them to stop when, out of nowere, someone grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the forest. She found herself staring into the face of a handsome young man with magenta eyes who gazed folornly back at her.

"_At some point we all get left beind_," he told her.

Takara awoke panting. Shakily, she got up and went to the sink to splash her face with cold water and try to collect herself. She hadn't had a dream like that in years, and couldn't understand why all of a sudden her subconscious had decided to revisit the most painful events from her past. What did it all mean - especially what the young man had said at the end?

She'd only ever met him once, but she'd thought about that man a lot over the years: she often wondered where he was now, what he was doing - what the rest of his team was doing. Were they still together - were they even still alive? She didn't like to think about the last possibility. Now that she considered it, the one thing both he and Tenmei had in common was that she'd been saved by both of them...

Takara cut the thought short; she needed to stop dwelling on Tenmei. For all she knew he might be on his way back to Konoha even now. She needed to move on.

Pushing her red hair back from her dripping face, the woman gave her reflection a final stern look before heading back to bed.


	2. Byakugan

CHAPTER TWO

BYAKUGAN

The following morning's check-up for her lame foot found Takara in slightly higher spirits. After another round of healing from the medic's skilled palm technique, her ankle felt almost as good as new. She could now stroll unhindered by crutches down the thoroughfare, enjoying her free hours before she had to go in to work. Along the way, she paused to sit on a bench and eat some dango while watching a group of academy students run laps around the village.

She closed her eyes and allowed the sun to warm her face as she savored her last bite of dumpling. After swallowing, she contentedly sucked the remaining syrup from her skewer. Caught up in the flavor of mitarashi, it took the woman a moment to notice the subtle change of light behind her eyelids as something abstructed the sun directly in front of her. Slowly opening her blue orbs to investigate, Takara nearly inhaled the small wooden stick in her shock.

Doubling over in a fit of coughs, the young woman once again recieved the honor of thoroughly entertaining Tenmei with her graceful ineptitute. His laughter, heartier than ever before, cut through the morning air while his thin, strong hand patted her firmly on the back.

"Sorry, sorry," he kept repeating between chortles, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you..."

She glared up at him through streaming eyes, "Then why did you sneak up and stand there like a creep without saying anything!"

"Well," he sank down on the bench beside her, "you just looked like you were enjoying yourself so much, I hated to interrupt you."

"You are horrible!" She wiped her face with the back of her hand as she cleared her throat.

"Yes, I know, I know," he grinned.

Takara was so irritated at the moment that she'd forgotten to be glad to see him. She straightened up at last, taking a few deep breaths, and turned an annoyed look on the man.

"What are you doing here?"

He appeared unphased by her abruptness. "I thought I'd already answered that before."

She rolled her eyes, "You know what I mean! I never know when you're going to just materialize out of nowere - it's so frustrating!"

"Sorry," he appologised yet again, "I'll try to make my presence known to you at all times from now on."

Takara threw her hands up in exhasperation, but said nothing. She looked at him once again, noticing his appearance for the first time. He had dark circles under his eyes that she hadn't seen there before and the lids drooped heavily over them. Meanwhile, his already lank hair looked dirty and separated while his face seemed to have sprouted sparse patches of gingery fuzz.

"How long have you been on that wall," she asked incredulously.

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Why, is it really that bad," he asked as he rubbed his whiskery chin.

"Well no - you just kind of look like you've been under seige for a couple of weeks, that's all."

Tenmei seemed to consider this with some consternation. "My last break was yesterday when I had lunch over at your diner," he admitted.

Takara looked at him aghast, "What, that long ago? Do they even let you sleep?"

"...A little bit."

"Why do they need you to work so much with all those people up there?"

He shrugged, "It's just my job while I'm here."

"Really," she began, trying to sound casual, "how long _will_ you be here?"

He shrugged again, "I don't really know; whenever the team I came with returns."

"I didn't realize you were with a team."

He smirked, "Well, I'm not _always_ with them; they're a bunch of ANBU fellows so they're a little cliquish."

"ANBU," she repeated questioningly "isn't that an assasination squad?" (She'd been given something of an education on the Black Ops of the Great Shinobi Villages by a former boyfriend.)

Tenmei, however, quickly brushed off the subject, "Actually, I did have a purpose for coming down here other than tormenting you - as enjoyable as that is. I was hoping to find some breakfast."

The woman started, "Oh right, you're probably starving," she suddenly paused as she remebered something - she couldn't believe the serendipity of the moment. "To be honest, I know a place right now that's serving delicious food - and the best part of all is - it's free."

000

A few minutes later, found the two of them sitting at Takara's dinning room table consuming all of the food she'd spent last night preparing. To her delight, Tenmei seemed to honestly be enjoying her cooking - sure it was probably the first meal he'd eaten since the one she'd cooked for him yesterday - but it was still gratifying to watch. His table manners, as always, remained flawless, but Takara noticed that his chopsticks moved with a bit more intensity than she'd seen before.

"You must be doing a really good job up there," she said to him now, "I've heard some of the guards mention you at the diner."

He nodded without looking up from his stir-fry.

She hesitated before continuing, "If you don't mind my asking - what exactly makes you so special?"

Tenmei briefly tore his eyes away from his meal to look at her. He chewed a few more times, then swallowed before replying, "Makes me so special - what do you mean exactly?"

"Well," she glanced down at her bowl, then blurted out, "it's just that I heard someone mention you had a kekkei genkai..." The woman hazarded another peek at her guest who was staring blankly back at her. Her cheeks inadvertently reddened, she hoped she hadn't asked anything inappropriate or stupid. Had she been completely wrong after all?

"What do you know about kekkei genkai," he asked after a long pause.

"Well, I'm not completely ignorant about ninja techniques," she said a little defensively, "I know about Uchiha, for instance."

The man appeared to repress a snort, "Of course, but who hasn't heard of them?"

She smiled slightly at his reaction, "Obviously I don't know as much as you do; I just know that sharingan is probably the most famous blood-line ability anywhere in the ninja world."

Tenmei shook his head as he picked through his stir-fry, a wry smile spread across his mouth, "If sharingan is the only thing you know about, then you really don't know very much."

She cocked her head, a wicked grin curling across her own face. "Really? I wonder what you could teach me; you have some interesting eyes," she teased, "would you happen to have an eye jutsu like Uchiha?"

"A better way to put it," he said, turning those polished marble orbs on her, "would be to say that Uchiha has an eye justu like _me_."

Takara started. She hadn't really been serious about the eye justu comment - "Are you kidding?"

Laying his chopsticks carefully down on his napkin, Tenmei brought his hands together and formed a seal. Takara watched with facination as networks of veins suddenly sprang up around his eyes like roads leading into a pair of metropolises on the map of his face. His pupils, while remaining white, were all at once defined from his irises by the torrents of blood apparently gushing into them from the veins popping out of his cheeks.

The woman let out an involutary gasp - simultaneously spellbound and creeped out by the display. After a moment, the ninja shut his eyes and the swollen veins gradually subsided back under the surface of his pale skin. Slowly, his lids fluttered back open and he looked at her.

"Oh - that was really, uh..."

"Heh, gross? Creepy?"

"That's not what I was going to say!"

"But that _was_ what you were thinking."

"No," she denied vehemently, "I definitely didn't think that!"

"It's fine," he assured, "there's no need to deny it - my eye technique is actually very good at picking up on body language - among other things."

Takara's traitorous face flushed yet again and Tenmei (naturally) laughed.

"So what exactly _is_ your technique," she asked agrivated, yet relieved that he wasn't offended.

"Byakugan," he stated simply.

"And what does it do?"

He shrugged, "Basically, it allows me to see...well...virtually everything."

She leaned away from him, frowning, "What do you mean by 'everything'?"

"Up close, far away, _through_ things, into things, all around and all at once," he rattled off.

"Is that so," she said, attempting to wrap her mind around what he'd just told her.

"Sharingan," he further declared, "is actually nothing more than a bastardized off-shoot from my clan's doujutsu - Uchiha gets too much credit."

The meal was over by now and Tenmei, after thanking her for the feast, helped her clear the table.

"I have a few hours before I have to be back on duty," he told her when she asked him about his plans for the day, "so I'll probably go up and sleep until then."

Takara placed the dishes in her sink and turned to look at him, "You even sleep up there?"

"It's the most convenient thing to do," he reasoned.

"Well, as you can see, I live right next to the wall, so it would be just as convenient and, I would imagine, even more comfortable to sleep here instead."

Tenmei blinked in an almost startled way, but quickly recovered before answering most graciously, "You're far too kind, but I couldn't possibly put you out any further than I already have..."

"Don't be rediculous," she dismissed his polite protests, "I'm just paying you back for what you did. Now then," walking over to a closet and pulling out a futon, she pointed imperially to the bathroom, "go shower, and don't forget to leave your clothes out so I can wash them."

Takara noticed with some satisfaction that it was finally Tenmei's turn to go pink in the face.

000

_There's a naked Leaf ninja in my bathroom right now_, the woman thought with a giggle as she tended to said shinobi's soiled garments. She never would have imagined herself in the middle of her current situation only a few hours ago, but odd circumstances had a funny way of sneaking up on you while you were so engrosed in mitarashi dango that you were completely oblivious to everything else around you.

Takara held up the dark blue shirt, wringing out the excess water before pinning it up to dry along with his canvas pants in front of the open window. Finished with all the ordinary articles, she cast a look at the bulky flak jacket and forehead protector sitting on the floor beside her and decided to give them both a good scrubbing as well.

While she worked, she tried to recall her past conversations with Tenmei in light of her new found knowledge of byakugan. Suddenly some of the things he'd said began to take on a new dimension - especially the comment he'd made yesterday about having 'seen' her while on the wall. If what he said was true and this doujutsu of his really could percieve everything all around - even look through objects - then what would stop it from looking right through the walls of her apartment?

Wrapping her arms protectively about herself, she shot a suspicious glare at the bathroom door. Moments later, the blood-line user emerged in a white cotton robe she'd provided him with. Being a little large on her, the thin garment fit the slight man well - somehow white seemed to suit him.

"What," he asked when her cold stare landed on him. He took a quick glance down at himself, checking that his robe was properly fastened.

"Nothing," she muttered, shaking the paranoid feelings from her mind. "I've almost finished with your clothes, and the futon is ready whenever you are."

Tenmei walked over to the bedding; he paused, then turned back to look at her, "I haven't slept in an actual bed for weeks..."

"It's fine," she waved off his gratitude, "stay for as long as you'd like - I actually have to be leaving for work soon."

"This is certainly enough to make us even," he said as he slid his body between the sheets.

She beamed, "It's my pleasure."

She watched as he situated himself until he was lying flat on his back; he then shut his eyes and fell instantly asleep. Takara, however, felt pretty sure that it wouldn't take much to rouse him (most of the ninja she knew were the like that) so she was careful be relatively quiet as she went about getting ready for work.

When she finally left a few minutes later he was still lying in the same position on her bed, breathing evenly. She couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointed that he would be gone when she returned.

Throughout the entire afternoon, the young red-headed woman was indefatigable despite the hordes of customers that flocked in and out all day long. Takara hadn't arrived a minute too soon: poor Ojiichan was up to his ears in lunch orders and Hiro had been obliged to go between helping with the prep work and waiting and bussing tables. Takara immediately took over the cooking so that the old man could take care of preparation and Hiro could stay up front.

Despite the semi seclusion of the kitchen, she was able to catch snipets of conversation going on outside and had learned how to gauge the overall mood of the customers even when she couldn't physically be in front of them. Though it might just have been her imagination, today she thought she could detect a certain level of disquiet among the patrons even while their speech and actions remained fairly normal. The thought dawned on her that, perhaps, this was something that had been present for a while now and she was only just consciously picking up on it. Admittedly, she'd been rather distracted the past couple days.

Takara looked at Hayato Ojiichan as he methodically sliced vegetables. She wondered if he or Hiro had heard anything. The more she thought about it, she wondered exactly what Tenmei's presence in Kusa meant - and Konoha's ANBU, what were they doing in Grass Country? These were yet more questions she wanted to put to the white-eyed ninja, though she doubted he'd give her a straight answer.

000

The following morning, as she opened, she half expected Tenmei to show up for his break - though he never did.

Today Takara worked the front of house while Ojiichan cooked in the back; Hiro had the day off. She cheerfully went about greeting and serving customers, hopeful for any information from the village wall or otherwise that might clue her in on what, if anything, was going on.

Some time late in the afternoon a pair of guards sat down to lunch, and the young woman eagerly went over to welcome them.

"Good afternoon, Asa-san, Kaemon-san - how are things going today?"

The bearded man known as Kaemon smiled at the server, "Don't you worry, Takara-san, as long as Asa and I are up there, the village is in good hands."

"Oops, well you're not up there right now, so what should I think," she laughed.

"Ah well," waved off the man, "I suppose those other guys will hold things down until we get back."

She took their orders.

"So," she asked in what she hoped was a casual manner, "how is your new guard from Leaf working out?'

"Funny you should ask," Asa, the younger ninja, spoke up, "he actually collapsed a little more than an hour ago and they had to carry him to the hospital."

Takara's breath caught in her throat. "He what?"

"Yeah," Kaemon agreed, "we mostly think he just used up too much chakra; hopefully he'll make a quick recovery."

"I guess the ninja from Konoha aren't all that hearty if simple guard duty is too much for them to handle," laughed Asa, and his sempai joined in.

The waitress plastered a grin on her face and quickly left to fill the two men's orders. She was shocked. Thinking back on yesterday, she remembered how tired and haggard he'd looked, but she'd hoped that a little food and sleep would restore him. What if there was something more serious than simply chakra loss wrong with him - like an illness. Silently she made a note to get to the hospital and see him tonight before visiting hours were over.

000

By the time she and Hayato Ojiichan had finished closing up, it was already early evening and she practically sprinted the entire way to the hospital. Finally arriving breathless but in time, Takara hurried over to the front desk where she was directed to a room on the second floor.

Giving a light knock on the already open door, Takara peered into the dimness, but all she could make out was a window with closed blinds rising over the foot of a bed recessed further into the room. She didn't known what exactly to expect or what, if anything, to bring with her. Reminding herself once again that she hardly knew the man, she wondered if showing up unexpectedly to visit him here was beginning to overstep her boundaries as a casual acquaintance... or had that already happened when she left him sleeping in her bed wearing her houserobe the other day?

"Come in," came a groggy male voice.

Her cheeks reddened slightly - there was no time now to change her mind.

"Hello," Takara smiled as she timidly entered the tomb-like chamber.

Upon recognizing his visitor, the patient appeared somewhat startled. Abruptly, he lifted his head from the pillow and tried to sit up.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, immediately panicking at his reaction, "I just heard that you were in the hospital and I was a little concerned, but if you want me to go that's fine." Even as she spoke, she was retreating for the door.

"Takara-san," he called after her in a strong, clear voice that took her by suprise. She could feel the redness on her face deepening - it was the first time she'd ever heard him say her name.

Hoping the dim light would be enough to hide her burning cheeks, she slowly poked her head back into the room, "yes?"

She could plainly hear the teasing laughter coming out in his tone. "What are you acting so afraid for; come in if you want to."

Meekly she obeyed, "I just wasn't sure..." she trailed off. Her eyes studied him as she approached, he still looked as tired as he had yesterday - even if a little neater. His hair, the color of dried roses, draped limply across his bare forehead. Stray shafts of sunlight from the haphazard blinds cast a strange greenish glow there on the space just above his eyebrows.

"Did I wake you up," she asked.

He shook his head, "No, I was just resting my eyes, please sit down."

Though it was obviously a lie, she didn't argue with him. Pulling a chair over, she sat down next to his bed.

"So who told you I was in the hospital," he asked while staring sleepily up at the ceiling.

"Just some guards at lunch time; they said you'd run low on chakra."

Tenmei gave a soft grunt, "It was my own fault for not paying attention - it was a stupid, genin-level mistake."

"How did it happen," she asked.

"I was just focusing too hard on 'out there' and not watching what's in here," he placed his hand over his chest.

"Can you even watch your own chakra," she grinned.

"Yes," he aswered gravely, "seeing chakra is primarily why byakugan exists...if you can know all about what your enemy's chakra is doing at all times, then it gives you a pretty good advantage."

"Oh," said Takara.

"But having it on almost constanly for nearly four days now," he went on, "on top of not eating and sleeping - I guess I overestimated myself."

"Well, you need to take better care of yourself," she admonished, "Take more breaks - I'm not always going to be there to make you eat and sleep!"

He turned his head toward her and they smirked at one another. The strange glow she'd seen on his forehead was still there, but now she could tell that it definitely wasn't an illusion created by the hazy lighting - they were markings.

A pallid green manji peaked above the space between his brows like the keystone in an archway, while running along either side of it, two hooked shafts swiped at the trapped symbol. The pale design made an overall eery contrast with the warm-colored vines of hair that attempted to cover over it.

Tenmei's sharp glance caught where she was looking and his smile faded. Once again, he turned to face the ceiling.

"What is that," she blurted out before she could stop herself. "Um, sorry, you don't have to answer."

"This," he said, touching his fingertips to his head, "is the good-luck charm of Hyuuga: it protects the clan - while forever reminding us of our place in it." There was unmistakable bitterness beneath his mockingly cheerful tone, but he did not give Takara the opportunity to question him further.

"But now I'd like to hear more about you, Takara-san; for instance, how does such a pretty, young, non-ninja woman remain so independant - even going so far as to wander carefreely through bandit infested woods all by yourself?"

"For the last time, they're not bandit infested," she snapped, "and I've been traveling through them ever since I was fourteen!"

"Where were you coming from the day we first met," he asked.

"I was in Ito visiting relatives."

"Oh? Is that where you're from originally?"

Takara shook her head, "No, I'm actually from a small village that was destroyed during the war - I've just been living here in Kusagakure since then."

Tenmei frowned curiously at her, "A ninja village seems like a strange place for anyone to move to - especially a civilian; do you have ninja relatives?"

"No," she laughed, "and it may seem like a strange choice, but it's still the most secure place in Grass Country."

"Alright, I'll give you that," agreed the man, "but technically speaking Kusa is still a hidden village - how did you manage to find it?"

"Well," she sighed, preparing for what might be a long story, "I had a little help getting there." She looked at Tenmei who was still staring inquisitively back - she couldn't remember the last time anyone had made the waitress feel so interesting.

000

Takara had been born and raised in Suimura, a little town in central Grass almost directly between the countries of Earth and Fire for which the Third Great Shinobi War had proved to be devastating. The day the Iwa-nin appeared had been a complete shock for the unsuspecting inhabitants of Kusa - but most especially for Suimura, who'd been among the first villages hit.

Specific details remained elusive to Takara who'd been barely fourteen at the time. All she could recall was the absolute chaos: fire, screaming, flashes of movement, explosions, billowing black clouds, the press of frantic people fleeing for their lives. She'd been visiting the market at the time of the first deafening blast. Scrambling to get home to her parents, she remembered being thrown to the ground - whether by an explosion, jutsu or just a hand she couldn't tell. Almost as soon as she hit the dirt, she'd not so much felt as heard the thud before everything went black.

When she awoke, she found herself bound and slung over the shoulder of a bolting ninja. She had no idea what had become of her parents or the rest of the village much less where she was headed now, or what would happen to her once she got there. Too terrified to struggle, the girl simply lay still and hoped to somehow make herself magically disappear from her horrible circumstances.

Unfortunately, it wasn't very long before they came to a stop and Takara was hoisted to the ground. The petrified girl found herself staring up into the face of a large, wild-haired Stone-nin who leered back down at her. She didn't even want to imagine what might have happened next. Mercifully she didn't have to, for right at that moment she was saved.

A long, thin projectile, seemingly shot out of nowhere, suddenly buried itself into the side of the Iwa-nin's neck. The large man swung round, kunai suddenly in hand, with such swiftness Takara's eyes could barely follow the motion. However, almost as rapidly, a figure zoomed out from the opposite direction, delivering a bone-shattering kick to the ninja's jaw that sent him flying. The figure landed lithely before the cowering girl who now realized it was a woman. The purple-haired kunoichi shot her an appraising look before pulling out a scythe which she used to cut away Takara's bindings.

Several feet away another burgundy-haired woman and a man had appeared and were surrounding the downed ninja.

"Don't be afraid," the young purple-haired woman told her, "you'll be safe with us." Beside her, yet another man appeared - this one wearing a mask that covered nearly his entire face.

He turned to the two securing the Stone-nin, "Hurry up and finish him off; we'll meet you again soon."

With that, Takara was lifted up and carried off once again - this time at least with her wrists and ankles freed - by the purple-haired kunoichi.

They traveled for what seemed close to fifteen minutes through forrests of bamboo. The two ninja leapt from stalk to stalk, using momentum to gain speed as they went until finally coming to land at the edge of a waterfall cascading into a deep ravine.

Striding forward, the masked man performed a string of hand seals and instantly the torrential water drew apart like a curtain in the center, revealing the opening of a large cave.

"Right this way," offered the young woman, carrying Takara down over the slippery rocks and into the mouth of the cave. Once inside, and on her own feet again, the bewildered girl strained to see the obstacles before her in the dark cavern when a light suddenly flooded the rocky chamber. The red-head turned toward the source of the glow only to find yet another mysterious person squatting in front of a crackling fire.

A boy close to her age with breathtaking magenta eyes looked up and smiled as the group entered, "Back so soon?" His attention then flicked to Takara and the grin dissolved.

"She'd been carried off by a Stone-nin," explained the masked man, "the others are taking care of him right now."

The older girl now turned to her, "where do you live?"

Takara told her.

She was uncomfortable to feel the eyes of everyone in the cave immediately on her.

"P-please," she stammered, "I need to get back and find my parents - I don't know what's happened to them."

The three ninja exchanged guarded looks.

"I'm afraid that would be a problem," said the masked man slowly, "that village has been completely destroyed."

000

Takara, however, refused to believe her parents were dead. She was convinced that they'd escaped the raid and fled someplace safe - possibly to Ito where they had family. She clung tenaciously to this belief all through the duration of the war and it comforted her.

Her group of five rescuers - all originally Grass ninja - had for one reason or another, deserted their village and were now considered outlaws. Being as such, none of them were able or willing to risk exposure by going to the ruins of Suimura to search for the girl's parents or try discovering their status. The shinobi of Kusagakure were already steaked out around the area and whatever aid was to be had for the victims of the Stone ninjas' raid would have to be left to them.

"I can't say there's no chance that they survived," the mysterious masked leader of the group told a hopeful Takara, "but the fact is you can't go looking for them right now; this entire country is a war zone - you aren't even safe with us."

"We should at least try and find a relatively safe place to leave the girl," the woman with the curly red-brown hair proposed.

"Could you take me to Ito," pleaded the fourteen-year-old.

But the boy close to her age was quick to dismiss the idea, "There's too much fighting going on between here and Ito - we're liable to get caught up in it."

"Still," pointed out, the man with a scar running diagonally across his face, "maybe there's a safer place that's closer and easier to get to."

Silence ensued for several moments.

"...What about Kusa," suggested the magenta-eyed youth.

The purple-haired kunoichi, gave him a sharp look, "You've got to be kidding, Daichi!"

"No, think about it - what place in all of Grass would be safer from Stone-nin?"

"Here you're worried about Stone-nin, but what do you think will happen if we show our faces around Grass Village?"

"Of course we'd need to be discreet," the curly-haired woman pointed out, "but frankly Grass has more important things to think about than a handful of minor missing nin at the moment."

"Who you callin' minor," snorted the man with the scar. The woman dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

"We wouldn't all have to go," the one named Daichi went on, "I could take her just outside the perameters and at least make sure she gets in okay."

"Do you seriously think that's a good idea," challenged his violet-headed friend.

The young man shrugged, "I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't."

All of them now turned to their leader for a decisive answer. The obscured man seemed to consider the plan for a moment before turning to Takara, "Obviously, the Village Hidden In Grass is the most protected place in the country if Daichi wishes to take you there. If not, we can easily drop you off at any local village, however Ito is out of the question."

Crestfallen, the girl stared down at her lap. She had only a vague notion that her parents were in Ito, and nothing else beyond that. On the other hand, one place she knew they weren't was in a ninja village. She paused when her uncertain blue eyes suddenly met the dark pink irises of the handsome boy.

"I know how you feel; I miss my family too, but if you ever want to find out about them you need to stay safe in the meantime," His reassuring smile caused her heart to almost burst, making it impossible for her to speak for several moments.

"Alright," she managed at last, "I'll go to the ninja village."

The trip took the majority of a day to make, and only the two younger ninja traveled with her, but at last they found themselves before what she gradually realized was a massive wall of bamboo stretching on either side as far as she could see among the forest of already naturally growing stalks of giant bamboo they stood in.

"You'll have to go up to it and ask for admittance," Daichi told her as they hung back a safe distance from the village literally hidden in grass.

"What if they won't let me in or want to know how I got here," she asked nervously.

"They'll definitely investigate you," Ranbu, the woman with purple hair, assured, "but obviously you're not a threat to them - they should allow you inside."

"We'll watch from here until then," promised the young man.

After a few moments of gathering her courage, Takara thanked the pair of them for all they'd done and started forward. She cast one final glance behind her at the teenagers who'd all but dissolved into the surrounding vegetation - it would be the last she ever saw of them.

000

"And so that is how I ended up in Kusagakure," concluded Takara.

"Where you've lived ever since," Tenmei mused, "Did you ever learn anything about your parents?"

The woman shook her head, "Only that they never really had a chance to escape; when I was able to return to Suimura, there was scarcely a building still standing. Our home was obliterated. Barely anyone survived, and the bodies were all buried in a mass grave."

"I'm sorry to hear that," he replied quietly.

"Well," she sighed, "I can't say that this village hasn't been good to me - whatever problems it may have." She gave the man in the bed a curious look as something important reentered her mind, "That reminds me, there was something I wanted to ask you."

He returned her quizzical expression, "Yes?"

"Forgive my bluntness, but you mentioned before that you'd traveled to Grass with a team...an ANBU team. I was just wondering exactly what that meant," her voice rose slightly as she continued, "I mean, you're obviously on that wall for some special reason, aren't you? So what's going on; could you tell me anything?"

The Hyuuga gave an agitated glance toward the open door, then stared evasively out the covered window, "I'm sorry, I can't talk about those things."

She let out another deep sigh, "Right; I knew that - I just had to ask anyway."

For a moment he lay there silently as if pondering, then turning his head toward her, he opened his mouth to speak but abruptly paused. The light but brisque tappping of rubber-soled shoes on the linolium floor suddenly alerted them to an approaching nurse. A diminutive young woman in her early twenties presently stuck her head through the doorway, "Pardon me, but visiting hours are over for the day."

Takara nodded to her, "Alright." She turned back to the reposing Tenmei, "I guess I'd better be going now - I hope you feel better soon."

"I will," he assured her, "I'm glad you came to visit me."

She smiled, "Maybe I'll see you tomorrow."

"I should be out of here by then - do you happen to work tomorrow?'

"Yes," she replied, "until five-o-clock."

He said nothing but nodded thoughtfully.

"Well, goodbye." She gave a final wave as she stepped out of the hospital room, his smile following her through the door.


	3. The attack on Grass

CHAPTER 3

THE ATTACK ON GRASS

"Are you looking for someone, or what?"

Takara jumped slightly at the curt voice beside her shoulder. Hiro stood there giving her a flinty look.

"I was counting," she said, "until someone interrupted me, that is."

"That's not what it looked like to me," he stated, giving the counter in front of her a vigorous swipe with his rag for emphasis.

The woman slowly closed her eyes as if praying for patience; she could not for the life of her figure out why she was encouraging this conversation, "So what does it look like to you?"

Of course it was just the opening the kid was looking for. "It looks to me like you're looking for a certain scrawny looser of a Leaf ninja."

"You know that's not very nice, Hiro."

"It wasn't intended to be," retorted the bratty genin as he continued to wipe the counter in front of her.

"You know," Takara said, turning to him from the till she'd been counting, "he's only here to help. What exactly do you have against him - is it because he's from Konoha or is there something else you've got a problem with?"

Hiro gave a careless shrug while he refilled napkin holders, "I just don't trust him, and I think he's going to end up doing something to hurt you - that's all."

Immediately loosing her count - yet again, Takara jerked back as if she'd been stung by a bee. "Hiro," she cried, "I can't believe you just said that! There's nothing going on between us - we only just met a few days ago." _And I'll probably never see him again after he leaves anyway, _she reminded herself glumly.

"If you say so," came his unaffected reply.

She shot him a deadly look, "Let's just drop it, okay?"

They continued opening in silence for a little while after that. Takara spent the time reflecting on her conversation with Hiro and her own uncertain feelings about Tenmei. Eventually her thoughts returned to her earlier talk with the white-eyed man. He wouldn't answer her questions about Leaf's purpose for being in the country or why he was stationed in Grass Village, but she still wondered what he would have said if they hadn't been interrupted.

Finishing up the drawer, she turned back to the boy who was now setting up chairs, "Hey Hiro?"

"Yeah?'

"I was wondering - have you noticed anything strange going on with the village lately?"

The young ninja paused, giving her a puzzled look, "What exactly do you mean?"

"Well, haven't you noticed the mood around here is a little off - especially with some of our shinobi customers," she crossed her arms and frowned in concentration. How could she describe what she meant? "It's like everyone is holding their breath about something and I have no idea why."

Hiro slowly set the last chair in place, his own face a mask of pensiveness. "Hmm - interesting..."

"What is?"

"I don't really know if it has to do with anything, but there has been some bad stuff happening outside the village."

Takara, who'd been hovering between the counter and the kitchen, suddenly sprang toward her co-worker, "What do you mean 'bad stuff'; what's going on, Hiro?"

The boy looked affronted, he held his hands up toward her and glanced furtively around, saying nothing further 'til he'd acertained that no one else could overhear. "Calm down, will you - you're such a spaz... Look," his voice dropped an octave and he drew his face closer to hers, "This isn't something that many people know about - especially non-ninja - because of the confidentiality of assignments, but a few weeks ago some jounin went missing on a mission and a team had to be sent out to look for them. When they found them they'd been completely ripped to pieces and left to rot in the woods."

The woman's eyes widened, "Where did it happen?"

"I don't know exactly, but it was well within the borders of Grass," noted the teen, "and no one can figure out who was responsible."

"Could it have been Stone," she breathed.

"They don't think so; there was an investigation and as far as anyone can tell, it doesn't look like the work of any of the known hidden villages; whoever it was though, they were really powerful or else there were a lot of them."

"Hiro," interrupted Takara, "how do you know all of this anyway?"

Averting his dark eyes, the boy ran a hand awkwardly through his tousled brown hair. "Well, I actually know this because...my dad was one of the jounin..."

His flat statement might just as well have been a punch to her gut. "Hiro," she only just managed "I-I'm so - I had no -"

"Save it," he cut her off sharply, "We've got customers coming up."

Indeed, a group of three elderly women were making their way to a table. Without another word, the boy turned away from her and headed over to greet the arrivals. Takara stared numbly after her young friend as he smiled brightly at the ladies and offered them his usual spiel, before she whipped around and rushed into the kitchen where she burst into tears.

000

The two of them worked through the day, which was slow but steady. Tenmei never showed up, but Takara spent the majority of her time in the back anyway and had other things to occupy her mind at the moment. She, likewise, got little chance to speak with Hiro, who always seemed to find something that required his full attention up front and scarcely even made eye contact with her when they were forced to interact.

At long last the day dragged to a close. The woman stood silently watching as the genin went about rigging up his security system around the preameters. When he'd finished, he loped soundlessly over to her and together they crossed the main street.

"I'm sorry," he now said out of nowhere after they'd walked a couple blocks.

Takara turned to the boy in suprise, "What about?"

"I didn't tell you because I knew it would only upset you."

"Hiro," she exclaimed, "why are you worried about _me_, it's your father!"

He shook his head in a dismissive manner, "We were never close - but at least now I can come home and see my mom - and know that she's okay..."

Takara cast a troubled look at him but said nothing - this was the first personal information Hiro had ever volunteered in the half-year she'd known him and to press him with too many questions now would be a mistake. Silently, she absorbed what he said before speaking once again, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I don't need anything," he sniffed, "we'll be fine."

She smiled slightly at his staunch pride, "Well, okay, but just know that I'm there if you do need anything - I mean, you've always helped me out." She placed a hand lightly on his shoulder.

The teenager paused, his poker face set firmly in place. "Yeah. Thanks."

They were now approaching the place where their paths generally split and Takara gave her younger friend a final wave before taking the path that lead along the village wall toward her apartment. Despite what Hiro said, she decided she would fix a bento large enough for him and his mother to share and somehow force him to take it.

She was so engrosed in pondering different strategies that she almost jumped out of her skin when she heard the voice directly behind her.

"What's the rush?"

"Oh! Can't you, for once, _not_ sneak up on me," gasped the infuriated woman now clutching the wall for balance.

"Sorry," grinned Tenmei, "but I wasn't sneaking up on you; I've been standing here the whole time while you were walking right past me."

"Oh, really?" She crossed her arms sheepishly, "Well, what are you doing just standing here anyway?"

"I was taking a short break and I remembered that you got off around this time, so I thought I might wait to see if you came by."

Takara gave him a once over, "How are you feeling now?"

"Better," he assured her, "though the food at the hospital left something to be desired."

"Well," she scolded, "If you'd stopped by the diner earlier then you could have eaten a decent meal."

"I wish I'd been able to," the slight man gave a whistful sigh, wedging his back comfortably into the groove created by two massive shafts of bamboo. He closed his eyes for a moment, looking to Takara like he might have fallen asleep right there, "but Kusa runs a suprisingly tight ship; I've been here since this morning," he finally continued.

Her arms dropped to her hips in agrivation, "You're going to wind up right back in the hospital if you keep up this way - how long of a break are you taking?"

He shrugged with his eyes still closed, "don't know yet - I guess we'll see how long it takes for them to call me back up," his finger pointed to a small black device wedged in his right ear. "How about you," he now asked, cracking open one pearly eye enough to observe her, "on your way home I suppose?"

"Yeah," she admitted, turning so that her own back leaned againt the wall beside him, both his eyes were now open and watching her, "but it's not like I have anything really important to do there right now."

Slowly a smile stretched across his face and the red-head, for some reason, found she couldn't help the grin that contageously spread over her own.

"You know what I thought when I first saw you," he asked, his demure orbs threatening to swallow her up in their white stare.

To her own suprise, Takara laughed almost giddily, "I'm not too sure I want to know."

He went on as if he hadn't heard, "There I was sitting up in a tree, checking out the surroundings when I notice a firey-haired maiden fleeing for her life from a couple of trolls like some very clumsy (but beautiful) wood nymph."

Takara chuckled even harder, "_You're_ the troll," she declared, slapping his arm.

"Is that any way to speak to your savior," he chided in a mock injured tone.

"Ha! Don't you mean that smug Leaf ninja who's always making fun of me," she countered.

"Only because you're cute," he defended himself.

A moment passed before the woman could recover enough to speak, "Cute? W-what am I - ten years old?"

The man's gaze rested evenly on the flustered Takara, every trace of the teasing smile gone from his lips, "Definitely not; you're every bit of a woman if I ever saw one."

The stunned server was left speechless; all of her mental faculties, her pride and every other form of resistance, suddenly capitulated before his brilliant eyes. She was captivated like a moth hovering between two lamps in the twilight - helpless to break the trance.

Tenmei's face drew steadily closer while her own neck slowly craned toward him without her consent. Before she could fully register what was happening their lips had parted, and for one dizzying moment the exhale of his warm breath caressed the side of her mouth.

An explosion somewhere in the distance, faint and muffled, like a balloon popping under a blanket, echoed through the evening air, going all but unnoticed by the dazed Takara. The ninja only centemeters from her face, however, instantly recoiled, rivulets of veins springing out over his cheeks as the woman watched in bewilderment. He caught her by the arms, shushing her unasked questions, as his gaze took in and interpreted the objects within his incomprehensible range. She saw his breath catch, and his grip immediately tightened on her.

"Wh-what is it?"

The severe expression on his face was all the more intensified by his extraordinary eye ability - making him appear alien and almost frightening in the shadowy twilight. The man's attention whipped back to her, his fingers, still grasping her tightly around the elbows, flung her away and she stumbled backward.

"Takara, get home - now!"

"Tell me what's going on!"

The shinobi, however, had already leapt onto and was racing up the side of the bamboo wall just as easily as if it were nothing more than a small incline.

"There's no time - just get inside as quickly as possible and stay there," he shouted over his shoulder.

000

Takara looked wildly around, she could see ninja in the distance similarly springing up the fortifications while voices above shouted orders. The small street where she stood was otherwise deserted. Frightened and completely perplexed, the red-haired woman turned and lurched toward her appartment.

Forcing the door open, she stumbled inside before slamming it behind her. Immediately she was at her window - peering out at the enormous segmented shafts of wood that always stared back at her. She strained to hear what the voices above were crying out, but she could catch little of what was being said. Likewise, the forms on the wall were equally difficult to make out as they rushed about like shadows in the deepening darkness.

Desperate to know what was going on, she threw up the window and leaned out as far as possible.

"...how far from here," she heard a voice that was unmistakably Kaemon's call out.

There came a muffled reply that must have been Tenmei's response, though she couldn't decipher it. She managed to put together only two consecutive words that the Leaf ninja was saying, however they did not sound comforting: "monsterous chakra."

The commotion on the wall continued for atleast another fifteen minutes with Takara gathering little more of the situation. The group of ninja on the wall, nevertheless, seemed to be growing. The woman thought she could see them forming some sort of barrier with thier bodies, lining up shoulder to shoulder, against whatever enemy that was fast approaching Kusa.

Frightened as she was, Takara couldn't pull herself back through the window - not while so many people (many of them friends and acquaintances) were putting themselves on the line for the village right in front of her. She hated being so useless; she only wished to be able to support them in some way - even if it was just through watching and fervently offering up strengthening thoughts to them. She thought of Tenmei with his large eyes pale as the moon and his hearty laugh that contrasted so much with his austere appearance and aristocratic attitude; someone like that couldn't be allowed to die on Kusa's wall - protecting her.

Suddenly, a burst of shouting erupted from the top of the wall and Takara nearly fell out of her window.

"There they are," she heard Tenmei bellow, "let them in!"

"We can't break the barrier - it's too dangerous if that thing is after them," someone else roared back.

"Wait a minute; what the _hell_ is that," gasped yet another person.

Takara had to check herself to make sure she wasn't halucinating. She could never mistake that sound - it had been directed at her too many times - high above her head, the white-eyed ninja was laughing.

A wave of suprised muttering passed over the row of shinobi while the home-bound and apprehensive woman was left wondering what on earth they could possibly be seeing on the other side of the wall. She soon imagined that she could hear another noise rising over and drowning out the din of anxious Grass-nin - a loud clacking sound like thousands of poles hitting against one another. Within another moment, Takara was astonished to see what looked like bamboo shoots springing up past Kusa's ramparts and over the heads of the dumbfounded guards. Before she could even finish registering the bizarre phenomenon taking place, however, something even more outrageous completely stole her attention: the most collosal tree she'd ever seen suddenly towered up before the wall, blocking out even the rising moon as it cast its massive shadow over the village.

So astounding was the sight above her, that Takara almost missed the two small figures clinging to the side of the epic trunk.

"The enemy has been slowed down by the bamboo," she heard Tenmei's voice yell, "quick, someone make an opening for them!"

More murmering ensued and finally she saw one ninja rise from his crouched position and make a series of gestures before thrusting his arms out toward the sky and slowly spreading them apart. As he did so, the sky around his hands gradually became a slightly lighter color - as if a hole were being worn through the atmosphere there like a threadbare garmet. The two people on the gigantic tree braced themselves, then leapt directly through the hole in the barrier one after the other in the fashion of circus acrobats, landing deftly on the parapet within. Immediately, the guard lowered his arms and the hole vanished.

"Get them to the hospital," someone called out, but how or whether the order was carried out the woman could not tell. The apprehensive muttering continued, peppered with loud exclamations every now and then, however Takara learned little more about what was going on. Nevertheless, little by little the tension seemed to subside. The last thing she remembered, she'd leaned against the window sill to rest her eyes for a moment and was started awake by the sound someone shouting her name.

The woman jerked her head up to find that it was already early dawn and the crowd of ninja were gone from the wall. Asa alone stood peering curiously down at her from his station above, "Are you okay?"

Takara struggled to raise herself up on her arms which, as a result of her laying on them, had also fallen asleep and now dangled uselessly out the window like a couple of linked sausages hung out to cure.

"Yeah, um, I'm fine," she said groggily, "how about you?"

"Everything is okay now," he assured her, "sorry if all the commotion last night frightened you."

She noticed that the gargantuan deciduous tree was likewise gone - making her question whether she'd actually dreamed half of the events she thought she'd witnessed.

Having acertained the young woman's well-being, Asa continued along his patrol and left Takara to drag herself back inside of her appartment. She still felt exhausted and had a slight headache from sleeping in such an odd position. Fortunately, she had the day off and didn't have to worry about getting ready for work - even if going back to bed was out of the question.

000

A few hours later, Takara headed out to run errands as well as hopefully learn something more about the scare from the previous evening. Her thoughts kept returning to Tenmei and the two mysterious figures who'd arrived in such extrordinary fashion - were they the companions he'd originally traveled to Grass with? Who - or what - had been chasing them?

The majority of her and Tenmei's meeting until now had been by chance, and today proved to be no different. She stumbled upon the group of three, suprisingly, walking out of the village leader's office building while she headed out to buy ingredients for Hiro's bento. She had expected the two newcomers (who were indeed ANBU operatives judging by their pocelain animal masks) to still be in the hospital recovering, while Tenmei continued his guard duties on the wall. The woman wondered what the unexpected location meant.

"...Shoulda just killed the bastard when we had the chance," one of the well-built men was saying as he adjusted his bird mask.

"Easier said than done," murmured his friend with the striped tiger face concealing his own, "otherwise, there'd still be two more of us standing here."

Before she could fully ponder their statements, Tenmei immediately noticed Takara while she was still several feet away. "Good morning," he called cheerfully to her from between his team mates.

The red-head smiled timidly at the expressionless ceramic faces, meanwhile Tenmei approached and pulled her over to the group. "Here, let me introduce you to my friends: Takara-san, this is Hideki-san and Tenzo-san."

"Don't just go casually blurting out our names like that, idiot," snapped bird-man.

Tenmei gave an innocent shrug, "Sorry."

"Ah, nice to meet you," she bowed uncertainly.

The two white masks bobbed back brisquely.

"So, you're not on the wall today," she asked Tenmei.

"Well," he said, "technically my guard duty is finished now that these two are back."

She turned back to the other two men, "That's right; I'm glad to see you're doing okay now."

The one with long brunette hair and a bird's mask made a grunting noise, "I was doing just fine to begin with."

"You'll have to excuse Hide - um - I mean my friend," quickly remedied the pale-eyed man, "he's been out in the wilderness for a little too long now and has forgotten how to interact with human beings."

The tiger-masked man snorted appreciatively at this and was rewarded with a sharp jab from his comrade.

"So," she looked troubledly at Tenmei, "does this mean you're leaving then?"

"Well, yes pretty soon," he admitted, "but your village leader has given us permission to rest here for a day or so before we head out."

"Speaking of which - I was hoping to find an inn somewhere before too long," spoke up the tiger man, suddenly stifleing a yawn.

"Right past the fruit market," Takara and Tenmei said at the same time, pointing the way.

The two ANBU operatives exchanged looks. "Thanks," said the short-haired agent, "Um, it was nice meeting you Takara san, but unfortunately I'd better go find a bed soon before I pass out."

"Go rest," Tenmei told him, "you must be dead on you feet after that stunt with the bamboo - and the tree."

"Yeah, wait for me," the one apparently called Hideki relented, also turning to join his friend.

"Sleep well; it was nice meeting the two of you," she called after them.

The remaining Leaf-nin now turned to the crimson haired waitress and smiled, "So, what brings you over here today; are you also taking a day off?"

She flashed a pleased grin back at him, "Actually I am. I was just going out to run some errands and hoped to meet up with you at some point."

"Really," he asked, sounding pleased.

"Don't act so suprised - I have a lot of questions to ask you!" She then paused, "Were you also about to go sleep?"

"Well that's an easy question - no I wasn't. Today I thought I'd go sight-seeing a bit while I still had the chance, so would it be okay if I walked with you for a little while?"

"I'm not going anywhere extremely interesting, but if you don't mind then I don't," she told him.

Together the two of them went around Kusa, Takara prodding him the entire way.

"So that was a wood jutsu he was using to manipulate the bamboo?" She picked up a cantaloupe and examined it before placing it in her cart.

"That's right," he answered, "it's something Tenzo-san specializes in; most likely it saved their lives." Tenmei absently held up a second melon and squinted at it before replacing it with the first in Takara's basket. "Riper," he explained when she shot him a look.

Ignoring the mild annoyance, she walked over to select some mushrooms. "What kind of person could pose such a threat to four jounin assasins," she mused aloud, "and what was he doing in our country - where did he come from anyway?" She looked concernedly back at him, "Where did he go?"

Tenmei gave her an appologetic glance, "I can't tell you everything you want to know - I don't even have all the answers myself." He cast a furtive look around the market and continued, "truthfully I'm probably saying more than I should, but that was no ordinary ninja: those four were only supposed to be gathering information - they never intended to be discovered much less lose two of their numbers to his attacks."

"Last night I heard you say something about 'monsterous chakra'," Takara recalled.

His tone became slightly chiding, "Yes; I noticed you taking close interest in the turn of events from your window."

"Whatever, I still went home like you told me - didn't I?"

Tenmei remained silent for a moment as they continued through the aisles; he finally spoke, "Takara?"

The woman noticed his failure once again to add the honorific 'san' to her name - the first time had been last night when he'd told her to get inside her appartment, which she'd merely dismissed as a slip of ediquette in the heat of the moment.

Though she thought it a bit presuptuous of him, she found that she really didn't mind very much - after all, they had nearly kissed. Suddenly remembering this, she felt a wave of heat rise to her face.

"What is it," she replied, busily picking through a display of peaches so as not to have to look at him.

"I'm curious: do you know anything about a clan with bloodline abilities that used to live in Grass Village?"

Takara was a bit suprised by the question, but thought about it for moment, "Actually I've heard of one, the Shihai clan, but they were already gone by the time I came to live here."

Tenmei nodded, "It would seem that the one who they were spying on was trying to find a member of that clan."

"Was he...but why," she asked.

"That is a very good question. Likewise, he himself, also seemed to posess a bloodline limit - albeit a very bizzare and grotesque one."

Her blue eyes widened, "What was it - did you see?"

"Something to do with his bones and being able to remove them from his body," mentioned the ninja, picking up a peach and turning it over in his fingers, "but aside from that, he has further abilities that don't appear to have originated from his own genes at all."

She furrowed her brow at him, "So what does that mean exactly?"

He turned his silvery-white stare from the piece of fruit, over to her, "Basically that someone has been tampering with his chakra and DNA - and whoever that someone may be is most likely who he's working for."

"You sound like you have an idea who it is already," stated Takara.

"We do," he affirmed, "but that information is classified, I'm afraid. Most likely that's why he persued Tenzo san and Hideki san all the way to Kusagakure trying to finish them off - he needed to keep the nature of his boss and mission a secret. Unfortunately for him, however, he only further incriminated the one we suspected all along by displaying those abilities."

At that point, the conversation paused as Takara purchased her items. Afterward, they headed back toward the street.

"Well he obviously knew not to try picking a fight with the whole village," sniffed the red-headed woman once they were back out of earshot of any casual bystander.

Tenmei looked doubtful, though, "I have a feeling that, if he'd really wanted to, that guy probably could have damn near taken out Kusa single-handedly; my guess is that it was more important for him not to draw any more attention to himself than he already had, so he decided he'd better leave well enough alone."

Takara was far too shaken by his statement to even reply.

"I just hope he doesn't give us any trouble on the way back to Konoha," muttered the Leaf-nin.

"Do you think he will," she suddenly balked, unintentionally reaching out and grabbing his thin hand in hers, "maybe you should stay here longer."

His gaze lingered on her for quite a while as she felt his long fingers slowly twine around her own; all the while, her heart thudded loudly against her chest. "I wish I could - though for a different reason."

"Ah-um-well," she quickly stammered, "I guess I'd better hurry up and get this stuff back home pretty soon." She pulled away and began striding brisquely back toward her appartment before abruptly turning around to face him once again, "Would you like to come with me?"

A small smile was his only answer.

000

After Takara put away what she'd bought, she set to work preparing a small lunch for Tenmei and herself. Following their meal, she took the man from Fire around to some of her favorite places in the village - including the park where academy students often trained. Meanwhile, Tenmei told her about Leaf, how the village was laid out, and about the Hyuuga compound where he lived.

"So all of the houses in your neighborhood are white?"

"It's kind of a traditional color in Hyuuga," he explained.

"Yeah," she giggled, examining his face, "I guess I can see how that makes sense."

Before she realized it, early evening had already rolled around. Tenmei insisted on taking her out to dinner - 'I can't have you keep feeding me, otherwise we won't be even anymore' - and made her choose her favorite restaraunt regardless of price. Reluctantly, Takara allowed him to take her to a nice place that she'd only been to on a couple occasions during past dates. After asking her what her favorite item on the menue was, he proceeded to order the dish amidst her protests over the price.

"I hope everything was to your liking, madam," he teased as they made their way from the restaraunt.

"That was definitely the best meal I've had in a long time," she admitted, "though I still can't believe you did that!"

"You deserve to be treated every now and then," he told her as they paused to sit on a nearby bench.

"How do you know what I deserve," challenged the woman, plopping down beside him, "you hardly even know me."

"Well then, tell me more about yourself," he countered.

She glanced thoughtfully up at the clear, darkening sky where the first stars were already beginning to emerge. "What else would you like to know?"

He appeared to gently scrutinize her for a minute. "When was the last time you spent an evening like this with someone?"

Taken by suprise, Takara shifted akwardly on the stone seat, "The last time? I don't know - I guess with my last boyfriend."

"How long ago was that?"

She crossed her arms, growing increasingly uncomfortable with the subject, "Several months ago - why?"

He shrugged, "I just find it hard to believe that someone like you would stay single for very long."

"Well, apparently I'm not quite as big a catch as you think I am," she rolled her eyes.

Tenmei laughed, "Why would you say that?"

"Just forget it," she waved him off, turning away.

Regardless of having numerous ninja friends and aquaintances, Takara had gradually come to the conclusion that she couldn't hold the interest of a shinobi for any long period of time. No matter what she had to offer or how many years she'd spent around them, she now understood there were parts of their world that she'd never have access to; in many ways, she still felt like a refugee merely taking up space in Grass Village.

Takara had dated a ninja during her last relationship (before he'd grown bored with her and moved on to a large-busted kunoichi with a mesh shirt and a facination for long-shafted weapons). Perhapse if it had been the first time something like this had happened to her she'd have had an easier time recovering - but such just wasn't the case. She knew she paled in comparison to the exotic ninja women of the village with their perfect, athletic bodies barely obscured under fish-net clothing, and after her painful acceptance of this fact, she'd decided to try and be content with her life as it was - modest and uncomplicated. She didn't need romance - she had routine!

Now, without warning, Tenmei had shown up with his aristocratic airs and fine features - so different than the rustic Grass shinobi she was used to. She found it difficult to believe that she'd only met him a little less than a week ago; she couldn't remember when she'd last been so struck by an individual. After tomorrow, having only known him for this short period of time, he was leaving and Takara wasn't sure how she should feel.

A pale hand on her shoulder suddenly interrupted the woman's thoughts. "I'm sorry if I said anything to upset you."

Takara turned back to look at him, but for some reason the words she started to utter got lost on the way to her lips. Instead all she could manage was to stare dumbly back at him.

Tenmei's slightly concerned look slowly eased into a more comfortable expression as he returned the gaze. Before long, the gap between them gradually began to diminish.

The kiss was soft and fleeting before he broke it off, his thin lips trailing leasurely across her cheek to her ear. His fingers gently twined into her long, waving hair and caressed the base of her neck; Takara felt the skin there prickle.

"Takara," he whispered, "you're beautiful."

000

The light of early morning struggled through her window as Takara stood peering at the obstructing wall. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering slightly in the drafty air. All at once a pair of warm arms clapsed themselves around her and Tenmei's torso was pressed against her back like a heavy cloak, sheilding her against the cold.

"What are you doing," he spoke softly into her ear, his hands stroked her cool skin.

"Oh, nothing," she answered, leaning slightly into him, "I just got distracted for a minute.

"Mmm, yes," he rested his chin on her shoulder, cocking his head to one side as he gazed at the towering structure just outside, "by the breath-taking view?"

She made a face but decided to ignore his witticism, "I guess it just hit me - you're leaving - and," she did her best to control the sudden waver in her voice, "I don't know when I'll ever see you again..."

Tenmei lifted his head back up and turned her to face him, his colorless eyes as hard as marble, "Takara - listen; I can't give you any kind of dates or spans of time, but I'm not leaving forever. I'll come back when I can."

The first hot tears slipped down her cheeks as she looked determinedly away from his stare, "But how often do you honestly visit Grass Country, and even if you did, how will you get permission to come back into the village without any official ninja-business?"

"We'll find a way," he assured her with a smile, using his thumb to wipe the streams from her face, "if nothing else, I'll meet you in some other town."

He pulled her into a tight embrace, allowing her to sniffle a little more into his lean chest. "Don't cry, or else I don't think I'll be able to leave at all; put on a smile - at least until I'm gone."

"Do you think you'll have any trouble from that ninja who chased your teammates the other day," she asked, attempting to compose herself once again.

"I doubt it," he said, "We've sent word ahead to Konoha; they know to expect us within a certain period of time or they'll send reinforcments."

Takara remained uncertain, she now looked squarely back at him, "How about this: I'll promise to act cheerful for you if you _promise_ to send me some kind of confirmation that you made it back safely to Konohagakure once you get there - is it a deal?"

"Sure," he grinned.

"I'm serious!"

"I know you are," laughed the ninja "and I promise."

After a small breakfast together, the two prepared for their respective day ahead. Takara dressed for work as Tenmei donned his flak jacket and shinobi gear. Once they were both ready, the waitress walked with him to the entrance of the village where the two ANBU opperatives, masks secured in place once again, waited for the other ninja's arrival.

"Let's get going," the agent in the bird mask said as soon as the last member of their team arrived.

Takara managed a small smile at the white-eyed man as the group prepared to head out, "Be careful, Tenmei."

Abruptly, the ninja turned back around. He suddenly seized her and proceeded to give her a long, passionate kiss as the two from ANBU looked on. When he pulled away at last, she was laughing and crying at the same time.

"Don't forget your promise," she called out as the trio finally took off. Without turning around, he raised one hand high into the air - then they were gone.

She remained standing at the gate for several more minutes before she herself left, slowly making her way to the diner for the start of another long day of work. Four days later she recieved a small scroll which read simply, 'promise kept', however, it was the last she ever heard from him.

000

_Autor's note: Well, some cannon characters finally make an appearance here; in case the hints I gave weren't clear enough, yes, the person with the 'monsterous chakra' Tenmei mentioned is indeed Kimimaro - back when he was still healthy and serving Orochimaru._


	4. Souta

CHAPTER 4

SOUTA

Life in Grass Village continued on as usual for Takara the weeks following Tenmei's departure. She found herself thinking of him at odd moments of the day - wishing to share some thing or another with him or wondering what he was doing at any given moment. Unbidden, the strange phrase from her dream of earlier came to mind: _At some point we all get left behind_. She now thought she better understood what that meant.

The day had started out with Takara feeling a bit under the weather upon waking. She'd decided to skip breakfast and head out early to prepare food before opening the diner. When she got there Hiro had not yet arrived, and his traps remained untouched from where he'd set them the night before. The woman paused, she'd watched the genin rig the contraptions on more occasions than she could count - she felt fairly certain that she could disable them without serious injury. The first step was knowing the order in which to begin.

Takara walked tentatively over to a hair-thin wire running across her path at ankle level. She thought she knew where the mechanism that disabled it was and carefully bent down to inspect the trap. An arm shot out in front of her without warning, taking her breath away and causing her to loose her balance. She was quickly snatched back by a pair of strong hands and came tumbling to the ground on her rear, her stomach lurching dangerously.

"_What the hell are you doing_?"

The woman turned dazedly to look into the face of a livid thirteen-year-old looming over her. Hiro was panting breathlessly, "You could've killed yourself - I had to body flicker to get over here in time!"

"Hiro, what are you doing here," she asked bewilderedly.

"Saving your life, idiot! What do you think you were doing?"

She slowly pulled herself up and onto her feet with a grunt, "Well, I was going to start opening the store before you tackled me."

"You were _trying_ to mess with my traps - why would you do something like that?"

"I can't do anything else until they're disabled, can I?"

The boy put a hand to his forehead, rubbing it furiously before he replied slowly and deliberately, "Don't ever do that again."

"But I've watched you do it a hundred times," she argued, "I can figure it out."

"No you can't, Takara, I do it slightly different every time, but you wouldn't know that because you're not a ninja!" The young shinobi was practically quivering as he spoke. Abruptly, he bent over the wire she'd been about to release before being stopped by him and undid it. With a motion too swift for her eye to follow, he jerked his hand back as a shower of senbon rained down where he'd been only moments before and buried themselves into the ground.

"You see: disabling it only triggers another trap," he explained darkly.

Takara gaped at the needles jutting out of the earth, then slowly back at Hiro, "I-I guess I didn't consider that..." She presently looked down at the young man's sleeve which was torn, a bright red gash across his forearm lazily saturated the fabric.

"Hiro, you're injured!"

He glanced down at the wound as if it were merely a ketchup stain, "It's nothing," he dismissed.

"Listen, I'm sorry; it was dumb of me to do something like that - you're right - but we need to get that looked at," she reached out and carefully took his arm. Suddenly, a wave of pure nausea nearly knocked her over, Takara had to twist sideways in order to keep from vomiting on Hiro. She doubled over, heaving uncontrollably as whatever little food she had in her stomach came gushing up.

"Takara, what's wrong; are you okay?" She felt Hiro's hand on her back. She took a breath to try and answer, but instead a fresh outporing of pale liquid spurted from her mouth.

"Is it because of my arm," he asked after her wretching had finally subsided.

The red-head shook her head, taking several deep breaths before attempting to speak again. "No, I just woke up feeling kind of ill."

The authoritative, older-brother tone was now back in his voice, "Then you don't need to be coming to work!"

"This is the first time I've thrown up," she defended.

"You're the one who should go to the doctor," Hiro told her.

Takara remained hunched over lest she loose anything else that might still remain in her virtually empty stomach; she thought for a moment. "Maybe they'd be able to give me some medicine so I can still work. Hiro, why don't you come too and have your arm taken care of before we start to open."

"Fine," he agreed.

Together, the two went to the hospital and, before long, were each seen by a medic-nin. Takara sat on the examination table anxiously awaiting the return of her doctor, checking the clock every three minutes to see what time it was. She wished they'd hurry up and write her a perscription so she could fill it and get back to work - she was already feeling better anyway.

At last the office door opened and the young medic who couldn't have been more than sixteen years old emerged, carrying a clip-board in her hand. She smiled cheerfully at the woman as she took a seat in the desk chair before her patient. "Well, Takara-san, I think we've found the reason why you've been feeling ill lately..."

When the waitress returned to the waiting room several minutes later, a fully healed Hiro was waiting for her. He took one look at her vacant expression as she wandered over and immediately began his interrogation: "What did they say, is it anything serious, are you going to be able to work, do you need to go home and lay down?"

She raised a hand for him to be quiet. Takara considered for a moment what to tell the high-strung youth, but finally decided she might as well tell him the truth and be done with it. "Hiro, I'm pregnant."

000

_Over Nine months later..._

With her due date only days away, Takara continued with her usual routine, which included heading out to open the restaraunt every morning. With the uncertainty of single parenthood looming over her - the waitressing mother-to-be had a lot of decisions to make right away, beginning with her very first decision to keep the tiny embryo left behind by Tenmei. She couldn't give anyone who asked a specific reason why she'd so quickly come to this decision, but even now she didn't doubt it was the right one.

Was it that she'd fallen in loved with Tenmei after all and wanted to have this little piece of him? She still wasn't sure of that herself. Perhapse it was a deep-seated maternal instict that drove her decision. Despite the fact that she'd considered having a family at some point, this wasn't the ideal situation she'd always drempt about. Takara believed there was more to it than any of these reasons, however. The more she thought about it, she was tired of always being 'left behind' - it was time to move forward with her life. Soon there would be someone who needed her for every little thing, and more than anything she wanted to be there for that person.

"Oh, there you are," Hiro said, as they both rounded the same corner. The boy had been taking it upon himself to escort her to work for the past six months; she'd given up trying to make him stop five months ago.

"Good morning, Hiro." A small foot presently slammed itself against the top of her swollen belly and Takara jumped.

"What," demanded the teen, immediately at her side. Hiro had remained awkwardly silent around her the following weeks after she'd found out about her pregnancy. To her releif at least, he hadn't said anything to her about Tenmei or berated her as he was prone to do. Gradually, as he seemed to adjust to her present condition, things returned to normal between them and - if possible - Hiro became even more protective and overbearing as if to compensate for the new edition.

She laughed, "It's nothing; he just kicked me."

Hiro smirked, "He's already preparing for when he becomes a shinobi."

"Maybe you could be his sensei," she teased.

"Definitely - if I ever make it past genin..."

Together they walked to the diner, planning out her baby's future ninja career.

For better or worse, news of Takara's pregnancy spread fast around the village. Fortunately, she found her share of support from the people she knew. Most of them seemed to feel sorry for her, believeing her the victim of some wicked foreighner's conquest (the majority also seemed to know about Tenmei). Takara did her best to take everything in stride and pretend not to notice the whispers whenever she waddled by - for the most part she didn't let it bother her anymore; she was already used to being pitied and judged to a certain degree anyway.

The always cramped kitchen was even smaller now thanks to Takara's enormous stomach. Her arms stretched to reach the pot she was stirring, while her rear end butted up against the shelves behind her - she felt like a walrus packed into a sardine can. She was also burning up to the point that she thought she might pass out, and would stick her head out the door every now and then to get a breath of fresh air before plunging back in.

The day was busy and Hiro and Hayato Ojiichan were both working up front. The further along she progressed the more time Takara spent in the back, being unable to manuever quickly around tables and customers anymore. The expectant cook did her best to ignore her sore back and aching feet that no longer fit into anything but flip-flops, and momentarily rested her butt on a low shelf while continuing to stir the soup. Every now and again the tiny person residing in her uterus would deliver a vigorous roundhouse to the abdomen, causing her to catch her breath.

The day seemed especially long. Takara's feet screamed, her back throbbed, and every now and then her innards contracted painfully. She silently wondered if she'd be able to make it to her due date in three days and thanked God that her maternity leave began tomorrow. By closing time she was scarcely able to walk.

"I'm not about to let you walk home," Hiro declared while stacking up chairs.

"What are you going to do," she shot back irritably, "carry me?"

The young man stared back challengingly, "That's exactly what I'm going to do - got a problem with it?"

"No, Hiro, absolutely not - you aren't going to lug my bloated butt all the way home; you probably couldn't even lift me off the ground!"

"Don't insult me!"

"I'm not insulting you; I'm insulting myself."

"Well, don't do that either," he ordered, "I'm taking you home, so just get over it."

"Pardon me, I couldn't help overhearing," the two turned to see Asa, who'd been about to leave, now standing in front of them, "I can take Takara-san home; I was just about to head back up to the wall and will be going that way anyway."

Hiro opened his mouth to reply, but the red-head cut him off, "Why thank you, Asa san, that's so kind of you. I'm very sorry to be such a huge - and I do mean _huge_ - burden..."

"Not at all," the man insisted, "It would be my pleasure to carry such a beauty; you're weight won't feel like anything to me."

"_Ahahaha_ - that's a lie, but thanks anyway," she giggled.

Hiro did not look amused in the least and glowered at both of them.

"Just let me finish up here, and I'll be ready," she told him.

"You're finished; please go home and rest, Takara chan," Hayato told her from where he was counting register.

"Well, okay; thanks, Ojiichan," she beamed gratefully, "Hopefully the next time I see you I'll finally have had this baby...good night, Hiro."

"Yeah," the boy frowned unhappily, "see you later."

With that, she and Asa made tracks for her apartment. Takara hoped she hadn't hurt Hiro's feelings - the truth was she was embarassed for him to carry her. She couldn't presicely say why - it may have been partially because she disliked feeling dependant on a kid, but also there was the thought of appearing somehow pathetic to her friend that her pride wouldn't allow.

Once Asa had dropped her off and made sure she was okay, the pregnant woman went to soak in the tub for a couple of hours before heading to bed early. She fully intended to spend as much time sleeping as possible before the new edition arrived.

The time was only a few minutes after midnight when a jolt of pain suddenly started the woman awake from a light and uncomfortable sleep. Takara clutched the sheets and shut her eyes tightly against the pain. She'd experienced similar sensations in weeks past - but it had always turned out to be false labor.

Determined to ingnore the pain and get back to sleep, she impatiently waited for the pang to subside. Gradually, the cramp in her belly eased and Takara exhaled in relief before attempting to find a more comfortable position. She'd only just begun to dose once again when she was seized by the most powerful contraction she'd experienced yet; Takara gasped and struggled to sit up, but the pang grew even stronger. The woman groaned as her entire body clenched up against the pain. She still wasn't ready to accept her contractions as the real deal just yet - before going through all of the hassle of calling her midwife, she wanted to be sure this kid wasn't having one over on her again.

"I won't fall for the same trick a third time," she told her rotund abdomen breathlessly.

Minutes passed and finally the pain subsided once again. Takara breathed a sigh of releif, letting her tensed muscles relax. She continued sitting upright several more minutes lest she be assaulted by yet another onslaught before her upper half slowy began to collapse back to the futon of its own accord.

Just as her head was sinking deeply into the pillow once again, a soft popping sound, like a stopper yanked from a drain, caught her attention and made the woman crack open one eye apprehensively.

"What now," she moaned.

Immediately afterward, a gush of warm fluid oozed unbidden over the bedding where she lay. Struggling back up and throwing the sheets aside, Takara turned on her bedside lamp and examined the suspicious liquid.

"No way," she quietly gasped in realization. She instantly rolled off her futon and crawled to the phone, dialing the number for her midwife, "Hello, Amaya, it's Takara; I think my water just broke..."

000

Takara's son, Souta, was born at 4:30am. After cleaning him up, Amaya wrapped the tiny boy in a fresh blanket and handed him over to his wearily joyous mother. Her tired eyes attempted to focus, in the darkness, upon the whimpering bundle, in her arms for the first time. His angry red skin stood out strikingly against the white blanket he rested in, and he wore the most furious expression that she'd ever seen on a baby's scrunched face.

"Hi, Souta, I'm your mommy."

Souta grimaced.

"I'm sorry, baby, here," she held him closely against her, rocking him back and forth.

The middle-aged woman smiled down at the pair, "See if he wants to nurse, then the two of you should rest for a few hours; I'll run some more tests after that."

With Souta pressed gently against her abdomen, the woman fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When she awoke, and sparse morning light streamed into the small apartment, Takara finally got her first clear look at the sleeping infant. She was amazed to see that the fine tuft of hair that ran along the top of his head like a mohawk was almost the same shade as her own firey locks.

Thougts of Tenmei surfaced unbidden into her brain - she found herself wondering what the Leaf ninja would think of his son if he could see him. Of course, she had no intention of ever trying to contact him concerning Souta - she'd come to realize that the time they'd spent together had only been a temporary connection between two strangers. Each had their own lives to attend to in different countries, and she wished him all the best. She was satisfied with simply preserving the memories she had of Tenmei, and now she had this small piece of him as well.

Souta's face suddenly contorted and a tiny cry pierced the morning silence. Takara shifted him in order to begin nursing. Just as she expected, his cries immediately subsided.

The midwife came over now and carefully began examining mother and child.

The red-haired woman, meanwhile, gazed intently at her equally crimson-headed infant. Even his tiny eyelashes, she noticed, had a strawberry tint to them. As the newborn suckled, those pale lashes slowly separated - Takara presently realized that she'd yet to see him open his eyes. She wondered if they would be the same shade as her own, or possibly even - Takara let out a gasp as her son's lids rose to reveal pupiless irises of the palest blue-white.

"Those are certainly some unique eyes he has," remarked Amaya, "I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it."

"Me either," marveled Takara. Actually, they weren't the exact color as Tenmei's overcast greyish orbs, nor were they her clear blue ones - Souta's eyes were the color of the sky hidden behind translucent cloudlets. She may have been bias, but she was fairly certain she had the most beautiful child in the world. The woman wondered if he would also posess the same special abilities as his father - though without anyone to teach him, he'd probably never be able to make full use of them.

Regardless, he'd make Grass proud one day by becoming a strong ninja. Until then, however, he was hers to love and care for and protect.

000

For the past few months, the only books Takara had read were on pregnancy and parenting. Still, nothing had really prepared her for being a new mother and the sheer amount of dedication immediately demanded of her. She fed her baby at least ten times a day on a fairly regular schedule around the clock, she burped him, rocked him, changed him - the cycle went on for the first couple of days until it was time to take Souta for his checkup.

Takara slipped the infant into his tiny onesie and pulled a cap over his red hair, she then harnessed him into his pouch against her stomach and together they emerged into the sunlight for the first time since his birth. Ready for a break, she looked forward to some fresh air and taking Souta out with her into the world for a little while. What she hadn't expected was the immediate attention they would recive the moment she stepped out of her door.

"Takara-san, who's that with you," a loud voice bellowed from above. She looked up to see Kaemon waving down at her from the top of the wall. As if on cue, a small group of kunoichi suddenly jumped down from the structure and gathered round to admire the newborn.

"How cute!"

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"What's his name?"

"How old is he?"

Although flattered by the delight of the other women over her obviously adorable child, she was still a bit apprehensive about anyone holding or otherwise putting their hands on the two-day-old and carefully excused herself as having to get Souta to his doctor's appointment.

"Do you need any help getting to the hospital," asked Asa who was all of a sudden standing behind her.

Takara, who still found herself taken off guard by ninja stealth even after all these years, gave a slight start at the sound of his voice. "Oh no, I'll be fine; I know you have to be getting back to work."

"It won't take long," he insisted.

"Well, it's just that I have to hold him," she indicated the baby.

"I can carry both of you - very gently."

"You should let him," said one of the kunoichi, "there's no reason for you to have to walk the whole way there with your baby."

She thought for a moment and decided perhapse it might be a good idea not to have Souta out in the elements for too long. Hesitantly accepting Asa's offer, she carefully clutched the boy to her, sheilding him from the wind, as the chunin took her swiftly to her destination.

Much to Takara's releif, her newborn recieved a clean bill of health from the doctor. Happily, she carried him back home - recieving glances and smiles from seemingly everyone she passed. Admittedly, Kusa was a rather small village, still it baffled her how people she'd never said more than two words to before were suddenly greeting her by name and coming up to see Souta. Like her, they marveled at his misty bluish eyes and complimented her on how cute he was.

Before too long, however, the little boy began to get restless and she knew he would need to be fed soon. Takara excused herself and continued home, hoping to make it back before the poor baby began to wail. As she approached the village wall once again she could hear Kaemon's clear, booming voice shouting down to her.

"Everything go okay?"

"Yes, he's very healthy," she waved back happily as she continued walking. She noticed the same kunoichi from earlier also waving back as she went.

By the time she and Souta made it back home, the woman's head was practically swimming with all the smiles and compliments her baby had garnered in just one afternoon. The boy, on the other hand, took everything in stride and hardly seemed to notice what a celebrity he'd suddenly become at less than a week old.

"Don't let fame change you," she warned the nursing child, "just stay your sweet self no matter what, okay?"

As if in reply, Souta let go of the nipple and promptly spit up.

"Alright, just so long as we're clear, then."

The days passed and eventually she decided it was time to take her child out to meet her friends and co-workers. She awoke early to feed him, she then changed, bathed and dressed the boy before getting herself ready; by the time she had finished the entire ordeal, it was already time for Souta to be fed once again. Finally, when they were both ready, Takara bundled up the baby and they headed first for the diner.

Along the way they paused several times to talk with passers by, including a couple of the waitress's regular customers. Everyone loved and made a big fuss over Souta, especially the older ladies who all offered to baby-sit whenever the young woman needed it. Takara began to feel overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from everyone in the village. How did simply getting herself pregnant by a foreighner she barely knew and then raising a child on a server's salary with no father make her someone to be admired? If anything, it would have made more sense for her to be ridiculed and scorned by the majority of people.

She was still pondering these things as she neared the restaurant at last. Hiro spotted her long before she actually reached the establishment and rushed over to meet her, abandoning the table he was cleaning. Takara was just glad he hadn't done the same thing to a table with people already at it (she wouldn't exactly put it past him).

"Hey," he said simply, stopping short several feet away from her with a hesitant grin. The young man carefully eyed the small bundle slung round her middle like it might have been a ticking bomb.

Smiling back, the woman finished closing the gap between them. "Hi Hiro," she replied, reaching out and pulling him to her in a hug. He refused to meet her eyes again for several moments after they separated, instead however, he focused on the tiny head poking out of the harness between them.

"Would you like to see him," she asked, reaching for the baby boy.

"Sure," he nodded.

Takara scooped the infant up into her arms and held him toward Hiro who gazed wonderingly at the small pinkish creature. Souta's pale eyes widened at the proximity of the strange new face as he regarded the older boy with equal amazement.

Hesitantly, Hiro stuck out a finger and slid it under the edge of the baby's cap, lifting it up to reveal a swatch of scarlet hair underneath. The youth smirked slightly, "He looks like you."

"Wanna hold him?"

"Huh," he suddenly stammered, "N-no I don't really know if that's - uh..."

"Come on," she urged, holding the child out to the reluctant teenager, "don't be scared, he can't bite you; he doesn't even have teeth yet."

"I'm not scared," groused the brunet, awkwardly holding out his arms to recieve the bundle of joy, "I've just never done this before."

"All you have to do is be sure and support his head," explained Takara, carefully situating the child in his arms. As soon as the baby's weight was transferred over to him, however, Hiro shifted into statue mode. Standing rigid as a post, he didn't so much as blink until she finally took pity on him and retrieved her son once again. The boy sighed as if relieved of an extraordinary burden.

"I guess Hayato Ojiichan must be busy in the kitchen," she said once she'd recovered enough from laughing at Hiro.

"Yeah," harumphed the irritated kid.

"I wanted him to see Souta too."

Hiro shifted toward her thoughtfully, "So, when will you be going back to work?"

"Well, I can't stay out for too long - probably only a couple more weeks or so," she frowned, "I still have to make arrangements for a baby-sitter."

"My mom could baby-sit for you," he told her.

She gave the teen a curious look, "Isn't your mom a ninja - she'd probably be too busy with missions to baby-sit, wouldn't she?"

"Being a ninja doesn't necessarily mean you go on missions every day; some ninja haven't been on missions for years (especially in this village...)"

"Still," protested the woman, "I don't want to impose on your mother."

"You aren't imposing - she wants to do it."

Takara walked with him toward the counter, holding Souta in her arms, "How do you know she wants to do that - you shouldn't just volunteer your mother for random things, Hiro."

"I'm not! Look, she really liked the food you forced me to take home that one time, and she's talked about doing something to repay you ever since...besides, she loves babies."

"I gave you that food way back before I was even pregnant," she laughed.

"So what? You should still go talk to her."

Takara had met Hiro's mother once months ago when she'd come by to personally thank Takara for the large basket of food she'd sent home with the boy shortly after learning of his father's death. She'd been struck by the physical similarities between mother and son - she was like looking at an older female version of Hiro with her tousled brunette hair and her dark, piercing eyes. Her personality, on the other hand, seemed much more meek and demure than her boisterous child's. Despite only a single brief meeting with the woman, Takara had felt an instant connection with her; if she honestly was interested in taking care of Souta, the red-head felt safe entrusting her baby to Hiro's mother.

Hayato Ojiichan was delighted with Souta and fawned over him as if he were the boy's own grandfather, "I never get to see my own grandchildren anymore," he said ruefully.

After spending a little more time with the two of them and showing off Souta to some of the lunch customers, Takara sat down to some of Ojiichan's cooking while another woman customer happily held her son and fed him from a bottle.

Business that day was slow enough that Hayato Ojiichan eventually told Hiro he could leave early. The young man urged his manager, once again, to come home with him and meet his mother. Such an invitation was unprecedented: it was unusual for Hiro to even mention his home life as a general rule, much less actually invite someone he worked with to his house. Takara found that she couldn't say no and, retrieving her sleeping baby from his temporary caretaker, got ready to follow her friend home.

When Hiro had told her that his mother loved babies, he hadn't been exageraging - if anything, that was an understatement. Once Hakuai, Hiro's mother, had finished showing Takara every baby photo and article of clothing she'd kept from her own son's infancy (not to mention all the stories and details of his baby-hood) the red-haired woman was fairly certain Hiro deeply regretted ever bringing her over.

"I always kept these in the unlikely hope that someday Hiro might have a little brother or sister, but," the dark-haired woman gave a wistful sigh, "now you can use them for your little one."

"All of these," Takara indicated the piles of clothes ranging from newborn all the way to toddler sizes, "Hakuai san, that's too much!"

"Not at all! They might as well be useful for someone, and this way I'll get to see Souta-chan in them!" She clapped exitedly. (Needless to say, Hakuai had taken the notion of baby-sitting extrordinarily well.)

The younger woman presently noticed a colorful collection of pieced material neatly folded in a nearby box with several other baby articles. "What's this?"

"This," Hakuai said, unfolding the fabric, "is a baby quilt that I made for Hiro while I was pregnant." (The boy in question had long since slunk away and left the two of them to their devices.) She now held it up to show Takara.

"It's beautiful," the other woman marveled at the fine stitchwork and delicate patterns of the little quilt; an idea slowly dawned on her.

Takara hadn't done any actual sewing in years, though she remembered her mother teaching her some stitchery. Her mother had, in fact, quilted quite often and Takara recalled watching long ago as she cut and pieced together tiny squares of fabric at her sewing table. Stopping by the library on her way back home, the new mom dropped a couple of quilting books on the table before sitting down to feed a hungry Souta later that evening.

000

The weeks passed quickly into months, and before long the waitress was back at work and her baby was spending the days with Hiro's mother. Together, the two women were able to share in Souta's first milestones - including lifting his head up, when he first rolled over and his first smile - all of which Hakuai meticulously recorded for his mother. Takara, dissapointed whenever she was not around to witness such precious occurances when they first happened, was delighted at least when she got to hear him laugh for the first time.

While bathing him one night, she'd made a certain high-pitched noise which had caused the small boy to suddenly explode into hysterics. The more she did it, the harder he laughed, and soon they were both in stitches. When she'd excitedly told Hakuai the following morning, they'd both tried imitating different sounds for the baby's amusement, but Souta merely indulged their silliness with a patronizing smile.

"Another way that he's like his father," noted Takara, "he loves watching me make a fool of myself."

During the day, the new mom found her mind constantly filled with thoughts of her baby boy. She looked forward to the end of every work day in anticipation of seeing him again - it was unlike any emotion she'd ever felt about anyone before. She doubted she'd ever love another person with the same intensity as she did Souta and was content to simply have him as company. Even the previously empty hole inside of her felt full and comfortable now. Takara had everything she could ever want in the squirming red-haired mass that was her tiny son.

Likewise, the whole village seemed almost equally as in love with the boy - at least that was how she saw it in her motherly perspective - as she herself was. Why not, she thought, he was the world's most adorable child after all. People she met on the street or at at work constantly asked her about him, and she was always ready with an answer or a cute story to tell. Even Hiro had eventually warmed to the baby and could now do everything from feeding to changing diapers.

"Good afternoon, Takara san, how is the baby?"

The waitress smiled warmly at one of the kunoichi guards from the wall who'd shown up for a late lunch. "Wonderful as usual, though I think he might be teething - he's been chewing and drooling a lot recently."

"Be sure and put his teething ring in the freezer before you give it to him - it was the only thing that pacified my daughter when she was teething," advised the other woman.

"I'll have to do that," the server replied.

"How old is the little tyke now," a rather haggard Kaemon, who'd obviously just returned from a long mission and sat down for a bite to eat, abruptly spoke up from the neighboring table.

"He's going on twenty three weeks now," answered Takara.

Her bearded friend gave a distracted smile and returned to eating his meal.

A few hours later found her and Hiro busily closing up for the evening. As usual, the woman was anxious to get back to her baby and hurried to finish the last few things before Hiro could set his traps and they could call it a night.

"Alright, Hiro, you can go ahead and I'll wait for you."

The crimson-headed woman walked away to allow the youth the vast amount of room he demanded for rigging up his 'alarm system'. Ever since the one time she'd ever tried messing with his traps, the genin now insisted she not even be around while he set them. Impatiently, she stood beside the street with her arms crossed over her chest waiting until he finished.

She looked up at approaching footsteps only to see Kaemon walking toward her. The older ninja gave a friendly wave.

"Oh, hello Kaemon-san, I thought you'd already left and gone home - I'm sure you must be exhausted."

"Not just yet," the middle-aged man admitted, "but I actually wanted to speak with you if possible."

"Of course," she frowned uncertainly, "but what about?"

Kaemon, himself, seemed unsure exactly how to proceed with what he wanted to say, "Actually, it's about your son," he finally blurted out.

Takara started, "My son - what do you mean?"

"Well I've been wondering - that is - whether or not you've kept in contact with the boy's father," inquired the ninja with apparent effort.

Takara, growing increasingly uncomfortable with the subject, wondered what in the world the man could possibly be trying to get at. "I - I'm afraid I don't..."

"The reason I ask," he plunged ahead quickly, "is because I saw some things while on my last mission - apparently ANBU opperatives from Konoha are still patroling near the village..."

"I'm sorry Kaemon-san, but I still don't understand what that has to do with Souta or his father."

"You do know about his bloodline ability, don't you?"

"Well, yes, byakugan right?"

The man nodded, "That's right, and it would seem that it might have gotten passed down to your baby as well."

The woman shrugged, "Maybe, he does have similar eyes, but what about it?"

Kaemon didn't reply right away, but appeared to deliberate over his next words. "I'm only saying this as a friend, but I think it would probably be in your best interest if Leaf didn't know about Souta," he said at last.

Takara gaped at him, bewildered and at a loss for words.

"Alright, I'm ready," Hiro suddenly called out from several yards away. The red-head jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Hey, what's up," asked the genin as he reached the place where the the two of them stood.

Kaemon gave his civilian friend one last meaningful look, "I'd better be going - take care, Takara-san," he said as he placed a large hand briefly on her shoulder and squeezed. Dumbly she watched as he turned to leave. By the time she rediscoverd the ability to vocalize anything, the ninja had already made his way across the street and was a small fuzzy form against the early evening sky.


	5. A Visit to the Village Leader

CHAPTER FIVE

A Visit to the Village Leader

For the rest of the evening the woman pondered all that the guard had said to her. Not that she ever had any intention of bringing it up, but why shouldn't anyone from Leaf know about Souta? What would having a bloodline limit have to do with anything, and what if they did find out - what would they do? The uncertainty was unbearable - she needed to know that her baby was safe and what sort of threat the ninja village in Fire posed to him.

"So what did Kaemon san say to you yesterday?"

Takara gave Hiro a suprised look as they walked from his house, where she'd dropped off Souta that morning, to work together. "Why do you ask?"

"Only because you've been acting like you're under some sort of genjutsu ever since he spoke to you," claimed the young shinobi.

The woman was silent for several moments as she decided how much to tell him. Hiro, meanwhile, continued to fix her with his solicitously impatient stare, "Weeeell?"

"Hiro, what do you know about kekkei genkai?"

"What?"

She gave a deep, steadying sigh before continuing, "I mean what would having a blood inheritance from a certain clan have to do with the village you belonged to or who you had children with?"

The young man's expression grew increasingly perplexed as she spoke, "Wait a minute - where is all of this this coming from all of a sudden?"

"Souta may have a kekkei genkai," she admitted quietly.

Hiro's scowl deepened as he scrutinized her, "How? Did someone in your family have one?"

"No, but his dad did."

"_That guy_," gasped the disgusted teen, "You're kidding! What sort of ability did that looser have, anyway?"

"He's not a looser, and nervermind," she snapped back irritably.

"Sorry," Hiro muttered after a brief pause, then a little hesitantly he went on, "So you really think he passed a blood inheritance down to Souta?"

"Well, I just don't know - but they do have the same kind of eyes..."

"A doujutsu," interrupted the youth with sudden interest, "those are really rare."

"Are they," she asked.

"Yeah - the only one I know much about is sharingan."

"This is a different one than that."

Hiro was amazed, "You mean Konoha has _two_ eye-technique clans; no wonder they're so powerful!"

"Yeah, I guess," she trailed off, "but what does that mean for Souta?"

The boy's scowl, the intensity of which usually indicated his level of concentration, was as deep as ever, but at last he let out a satisfied snort, "Well, assuming he ever does develop some special ability - which wouldn't be for years from now anyway - he was born here in _Grass_ from a native of _Grass Country_, and therefore is a natural born citizen of _Grass_; there's nothing Leaf or Fire can say about that."

Takara slowly allowed what Hiro said to sink in, "That does make sense..."

"Besides," he went on with growing assuredness, "how are they supposed to find out anyway - can they really keep up with every single stray individual with a specific kekkei genkai - I doubt they'd even care very much if they did know."

"Do you really think so," she asked hopefully.

The young man's dismissive shrug drove the point home, "'Corse I do - everybody here loves that kid, and we aren't just gonna let him get whisked off by some foreign country; he belongs in Kusa."

Just those few mettlesome words uttered by Hiro were enough to bring courage to her heart and tears of relief to her stinging eyes; gratefully, she reached out and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, pulling him into a tight hug. "Thank you Hiro."

She was unable to see his face, but felt the young ninja's body go completely rigid against her embrace, his long neck (he'd only just shot up past her own height in the past couple of months) radiated heat against her cheek. After a long moment, a clumsy pair of hands slowly twined themselves around her waist and the teen's frame relaxed slightly next to her.

Takara released him, wiping at her face. The young man continued to gaze intently at her until she grew self-conscious and had to look away.

"Whew, I need to pull myself together," she laughed awkwardly. Quickly she took a steadying breath and smoothed down her long wavy tresses before turning back toward him, "Okay, let's get to work."

"Yeah," he answered soberly, staring fixedly off into the distance as they continued silently the rest of the way to the diner.

000

Another week passed and once again it was Takara's day off. The woman awoke with a smile at the sound of her baby sqirming and cooing beside her. More than anything, she looked forward to the day she could spend entirely with her young son doing whatever she needed or wanted to get done. Before Souta was born, she'd always worried that a baby would be an enormous impediment to her busy life, but he was such a good baby. She carried him around everywhere she went and together they had fun whatever they did.

"Are you hungry, you little cutie," she asked the boy. His toothless grin was all the reply she got, but it was all that was needed. Chuckling, she scooped the child up into her arms and kissed him on his bright red head.

"Alright then, let's eat and we'll start getting you ready - you've got a busy day ahead."

A little over an hour later, and the two of them were fed, dressed, and ready for a day out together. Takara had just finished harnessing Souta into his pouch and was heading for the door when a loud rap from the opposite side nearly caused her heart to stop.

Instinctively clutching her baby closely to her, she cautiously reached for the handle and pulled the door open a crack, revealing a uniformed guard from the village leader's office.

"Hello," she said, peering out hesitantly at the unexpected visitor, "can I help you?"

"Takara-san," said the rigid-looking man standing on her doorstep, "I have a summons for you from the village head - I am to escort you to his office immediately."

Stupefied beyond speech, the frazzled woman stood opening and closing her mouth like a koi. She'd never been 'summoned' to see the village leader before - that was something that ninja did before and after going on missions. Like every inhabitant of Kusagakure, Takara knew the leader of Grass on at least the most basic level, but had never gotten beyond 'good morning, Shimeji-sama,' in a conversation with him. That he now wished to see her at the village headquarters did not bode well in the civilian's mind at all.

Helplessly, she looked from the messenger to Souta and back over her shoulder, strangely feeling like a captured war prisoner forced from a foxhole.

"You may take the child with you," the man continued, "this shouldn't take long."

"May I ask why the village head wants to see me," she ventured as calmly as possible, her arms still protectively wrapped around the six-month-old.

"I'm afraid I don't have any more information to give you," appologized the guard, dismissively. With that, he turned and began to stride off. "Please follow me," he added without turning around. Takara was obliged to scurry after him.

Along the way, the woman glanced fleetingly toward the wall: she noticed a few people observing thier progress above her, but couldn't identify any of them. She wondered where Kaemon might be - would he know what was going on? Doing her best to put off the fearful questions bouncing around in her brain, she decided to wait and see what the leader wanted - maybe she was freaking out about nothing. She couldn't allow herself to dread the worst.

At last, though in reality it only took about ten minutes, they reached the village headquarters and Takara was gestured inside by the guard. She entered a reception hall, empty accept for the large desk in the center where a lone woman sat doing paperwork.

Without warning, Souta began to whimper softly against her midsection. The woman behind the desk presently glanced up as Takara tried to soothe the little boy, and immediately gave a grim nod toward a door to her left.

"Hello, Takara-san. Shimeji-sama is waiting for you inside."

The leader of Kusagakure was a deceptively unassuming man of middle age. Having served in his post as village leader for fourteen years now, his wisdom and diplomacy remained highly respected throughout Grass, and the prestige he'd won during the Second Ninja War remained legendary among the inhabitants of Grass Country even to the present day.

He smiled warmly at mother and child as if welcoming a couple of old friends, despite having never said more than three consecutive words to the civilian woman at any given time. Takara grasped for hope from his kind expression in the midst of her overwhelming anxiety, managing with some difficulty to return it. Maybe, she forced herself to consider, everything was going to be okay; after all, how could such a compassionate and powerful leader ever allow anything to happen to her precious Souta?

"Takara san, good morning; please have a seat. I'm very sorry to have asked you here on such short notice, but I wanted to catch you early before you got too involved with your day." His eye landed distractedly on the unhappy baby that sqirmed like a captive against its cloth bindings and the man's beaming smile seemed to waver slightly. "How are you doing, by the way?"

_I've been better..._ "Very well, thank you," she said aloud, anxious to cut through the niceties and get to the reason for her current presence in the village headquarters.

"Well, I suppose you're wondering why you're here, so allow me to get straight to the point," he went on as if reading her mind, "Takara san, how much do you know about the Hyuuga clan of Konoha?"

Automatically, her fingers tightened around the bundle in her lap - it was about Souta after all - of course she'd known it would be.

"Not much at all," she confessed.

Shimeji held her for a few moments within his meaningful stare, "I see. Well, let me fill you in: simply put, they are the oldest, most distinguished clan of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and they own the eye-technique know as byakugan."

Takara nodded that she understood.

"More importantly, like all clans with secret techniques, they are extremely possessive of them. For most clans that simply means keeping jutsu within the family and not teaching them to outsiders, but with bloodline abilities things get a little more complicated," once again, his glance traveled to the still fussing Souta who paused to look back at the unfamiliar man with tearful, snowy-colored eyes.

"For example, Hyuuga clan has strict policies govorning every aspect of its member's lives - including procreation with outsiders." Momentarily, a dark shadow passed over his benign coutenace, "And recently, it has somehow reached the attention of _spies _from Leaf Village that an infant with Hyuuga 'features' lives here in Grass."

He cocked his brow at her in a wry expression, "I am correct in assuming that this baby's father isn't from around here - am I not?"

"Yes," she meekly responded, casting her eyes downward.

"Then, circumstances being what they are," he abruptly cleared his throat as if to rid it of whatever unpleasant thing he was going to say next, "the Hyuuga clan has insisted on examining the child - which, if indeed one of their own is responsible for fathering - I cannot deny them the right to do."

"What," gasped Takara, jolting bolt upright as if she'd just recieved an electric shock.

At his mother's outburst, Souta's small whimpers instantly dissolved into a long wail that filled the village leader's office. Reaching into his carrier, she pulled out the baby and held him comfortingly against her shoulder. Her wide blue eyes, all the while, stared pleadingly at the older man, "Shimeji-sama, I don't understand - what does this mean?"

He stood up from his desk and crossed over to where she was, placing a hand on her unoccupied shoulder, "right now it doesn't mean anything," he reassured. The woman's intial panic was suspended in the face of the seasoned shinobi's steady and compelling gaze. "I have given consent for a handful of representatives to enter the village, and nothing else at this point."

"But," objected the red-head, "what if they _do_ find that Souta has byakugan - then what?"

The leader took a step back from her and folded his arms across his chest, "I can't say," he continued pensively, "what conclusion these Leaf nin will draw concerning your baby...but regardless, I have no intention of simply letting them do whatever they please. I still hold the final authority in Grass, and my advisers and I will do whatever we can to ensure that Souta remains here - even if it means coming up with some kind of agreement between our two villages - Leaf isn't completely unreasonable."

The confidence in his tone and demeanor sent a surge of courage to the distressed mother's heart. Clutching her tearful baby close, she managed her first genuine smile since entering the office. "Thank you so much, Shimeji-sama," she choked out, her own eyes streaming.

000

Takara's head swam with the morning's events as she aimlessly carried Souta through town. Eventually, she found herself standing in her favorite park; she walked over to sit down on a bench and reflect on everything that had taken place in just the couple hours since she'd left her appartment. According to Shimeji, the representatives from Leaf were already on their way and would be arriving by the end of the week. The mere idea of anyone trying to take her son from her still had the woman severely shaken, and for a moment all she could do was take breath after breath in order to keep herself calm.

Souta, since changed and fed, remained quiet yet not entirely content. His tiny brow puckered as his round, pale eyes glanced solicitously at his mom. Takara absently stroked his soft, crimson hair as she weighed her options - of which she admittedly had very few. She found herself once again remembering the band of missing-nin she'd met as a young girl and wondering what it would have been like if she'd become a ninja who could abandon her village to live among a small group of fugitives. But she knew she was being unrealistic - these were only the wild fantasies of a desperate woman.

Gazing down at her increasingly drowsy son whose head now lulled against her arm, she thought about Tenmei: what did all of this mean for him? Would he be punished by his clan for impregnating an 'outsider'?

A memory from over a year ago suddenly popped unbidden into her head - a scene of the ninja lying in a hospital bed, a pale green manji branding his forehead..._the good-luck charm of Hyuuga: it protects the clan - while forever reminding us of our place in it_. A shiver ran down her spine;_ s_he'd never imagined how relentless one clan could be, all for the sake of a glorified family trait. What if Hyuuga did get their hands on her boy - would they slap one of those ugly symbols on his forehead as well? Though she didn't know the mark's exact function, she understood enough to know she didn't want Souta to ever have to wear one.

The baby was now sleeping soundly and Takara watched as his chest rose and fell rhythmically with his peaceful breathing. She silently swore anew to use whatever power she possesed to ensure her son's safety and well-being regardless of what ninja or elite or entire clan she had to take on in order to do so; whatever happened to her, Souta was going to be okay - she would make sure of it. She wrapped her arms protectively around her child and pulled him closer, letting go of everything else.

When Takara arrived to drop off Souta the following morning, she found to her shock that Hiro and Hakuai already knew about the impending arrival of representative from Leaf Village.

"I found out yesterday from Kaemon-san," the boy told her.

"But how did he know about it," she wondered.

Hiro shrugged unconcernedly "He and the village head are pretty close; I think they used to be teammates - besides everyone knows by now."

"They do?" Takara knew about news traveling fast in a small town, but this was rediculous.

"That's right, nobody can believe what Leaf is trying to do - Shimeji-sama will never let them take Souta..."

"Hiro," his mother interrupted, giving him a look.

The young man paused in the middle of his next breath and conspicuously closed his mouth. "Well, I guess it's time to head to work, then."

"Please take care and have a good day, Takara," Hakuai said with a such a sympathetic expression that the other woman found it difficult to meet her eyes.

"Th-thank you, Hakuai, I will...are you ready to go, Hiro?"

The teen nodded, "Yeah, let's go."

Hiro hadn't been exagerating when he'd said that everyone in Grass knew about her meeting with Shimeji sama. Seemingly every customer she waited on had some word of encouragement for her or disparaging remark against Konoha. Takara took everything in stride as best she could; uncomfortable as the subject made her, it was heartening to feel the entire population of Kusa backing her up. She felt stronger knowing she was a part of something so much larger than herself as her heart swelled to the point of bursting for her addoptive village that so readily accepted and embraced her son as one of their own.

By the end of the day, she was so anxious to get back to her baby that the first thing she did after arriving at Hiro's house was grab the little boy and toss him into the air - to his shrieking amusement.

"I think he's missed you today," giggled Hakuai as she watched.

"Not as much as I've missed him, I bet," replied Takara, tickling the still sqealing Souta.

"Why don't you have dinner with us, Takara," offered the other woman, "That is if you don't have any other plans - we'd love to have you."

The server hesitated, "Are you sure it's okay - I don't want to put you out any more than I already do - I mean you're always sitting for Souta."

"Haven't you figured out by now that she wouldn't let you stop bringing him over even if you tried," huffed the son of the woman in question, "So stop dithering and eat with us, already."

"Hiro," gasped his demure mother, unused to the way the two co-workers generally interacted with each other.

"Well when you put it like that," grinned Takara, "how can I say no?"

Hakuai prepared a beautiful dinner for the three of them, "It's nice to have someone else to cook for," she beamed happily.

Takara marveled once again that one person could be so versitile: parent, ninja, gormet chef, while at the same time remaining so at ease and perpetually gracious. Beside Hiro's mother, she felt very much like an underachiever. As alsways, she wished that some of her more experienced friend's accomplishments might somehow rub off on her through osmosis, but was beginning to suspect that Hakuai's natural disposition was something you could only come by honestly.

After the meal, Takara offered her assistance with clearing the table and helping Hakuai wash and put away dishes. Meanwhile, Souta slept on Hiro's lap.

"That should do it," said the older woman, stacking the last bowl in its place. She cast a side-long glance at the two boys reclining peacefully in the next room, Hiro's head lulled until his chin drooped heavily onto his chest and he let out a soft snore. The two mothers tittered quietly together at the tender scene in a way that, had he been cognizant, would have instantly incured the wrath of the volitile teenager.

"It'd be a shame to wake them," whispered the broadly smiling Hakuai, "Would you like to step out for a few minutes; we could take a little walk."

"Sure," Takara smirked, "that'd be nice."

Several minutes later found the pair of them walking leisurely down the street together. Once they'd passed the first couple of blocks, Hakuai favored her friend with a solicitous look. "How have you been these past couple days?"

Takara thought she understood what the other was getting at and took a calming breath before answering the question. "Well, it's been a bit rough I suppose."

The dark haired woman nodded soberly, "I can only imagine."

They continued in silence for a few more moments, each absorbed in thought before Hakuai spoke again: "But do you feel good about what the village head told you?"

The red-head sighed in thought, "I feel good that he won't just let Leaf call all the shots..." She found herself wringing her hands as she spoke, "I just want to get this over with and not have to worry anymore, but I can't think about-"

Takara broke off.

She felt Hakuai's slender fingers on her shoulder and turning, suddenly buried her head against her older friend's neck. The kunoichi patiently waited as Takara unloaded all of her anxieties of the past week.

"What will I do - I don't know how I'll keep going if they take him away..."

"Don't think about that," said Hakuai in a soothing voice as she stroked the young woman's crimson curls, "You have more strength than you realize, Takara-chan, no matter what happens, you're strong...just take each moment as it comes and don't try to predict the future, no matter how much you want to. It just isn't possible to live that way."

Takara lifted her head to look into the warm pair of chocolate-brown eyes smiling back at her - she immediately understood that she wasn't simply being mollified with empty words - she was standing beside someone who'd known her own share of physical and emotional pain.

Though years had passed since the death of her parents, Takara still felt the loss left by their absence. However, somehow, with the people of Grass Village she'd managed to build a new life for herself. She couldn't have fathomed nearly thirteen years ago that she'd not only be living comfortably among ninja, but would be embraced like any other natural born inhabitant of the hidden village; life was unpredictable. At any rate, she knew Hakuai was right - even if it seemed impossible she couldn't allow her mind to get ahead of her. For now, she still had her son, and took comfort in the fact that she had so many powerful and influential individuals backing her and Souta up.

Instilled with renewed hope, she brought her baby home that evening. After bathing him and dressing him in his pajamas, she and the little boy played until his pale eyes drooped in sleepiness once again. Never one to fight sleep, the small child quickly curled up against his mom and the two snuggled in for the night. Takara drifted peacfully to sleep to the smell of Souta's no-tears baby shampoo.


	6. Konoha

CHAPTER SIX

KONOHA

The next morning, she and Hiro were once again on their own. Ojiichan had taken ill a couple days ago and was still confined to his bed, leaving the two co-workers to argue over whose turn it was to prepare food.

"You always say how you don't get the chance to cook enough," pointed out the woman, tying her red hair back in a pink, flowery scarf for work.

"But _you_ always say that whenever _I_ cook, I always stink up the kitchen," the brunet argued back.

"That's only because you don't pay attention to what you're doing," sighed Takara, tossing her head back, "besides, I can't stand the smell of our food today."

"You're not pregnant anymore; you can't use that excuse."

She narrowed her eyes until they were a pair of glinting blue diamonds, "Don't make me pull rank on you."

"Fine - if it'll get you to shut up I'll cook, but I don't wanna hear any complaining from you."

"Then you'd better hope none of the customers complain," she shot back as she went off to finish setting up, leaving the boy to grumble behind her back.

Like the vast majority of his gender, Hiro had a tendency to become mysteriously incompetent at even the slightest thing outside his field of interest. Not to say that the young man didn't know how to cook, he'd been making his way around the cramped kitchen for well over a year, however he had a funny way of forgetting how to prepare the simplest meals after an hour or two of standing over the hot stove.

She'd fallen for his ploy the first several times, exhasperatedly snatching his spoon away to show him the proper way to stir, only to have him sneakily slip off to wait on customers while she was left effectively stranded at the stove. Not anymore though; she'd finally caught on to his routine and she intended to ensure that he serve the entire duration of his alloted time in the kitchen - no matter what.

"Takaraaaa," a wheedling voice called out from within the suspiciously smoking kitchen later on as the waitress paused to wipe a neaby counter, "I think I burned the vegetables..."

"Well, turn on the fan and cook 'em again," she snarked back, "I'm not setting one foot in that gas chamber."

She turned back to her work, letting Hiro alone to slam things around in the mess he'd created.

She was still grinning satisfactorily to herself when she looked up to see someone she wouldn't have minded never laying eyes on again suddenly striding purposefully in her direction from across the street. The hated guard from the Village Head's office immediately met her gaze with his infuriatingly deadpan expression. Takara turned back to bussing, purposefully ignoring him in the hopes that he would vanish like a bad dream or possibly get smashed by a large falling object. Unfortunately, neither was the case as the businesslike nin approached her.

"Pardon me Takara san," he announced to her averted form, "I have been sent to inform you that the representatives from Leaf have arrived and are requesting the presence of you and your son at the office of the Village Head."

The highly volitile woman spun round and fixed the messenger with a look that, had it been a ninjutsu, would have melted his face off. "Does it look like I'm at a point were I can drop everything and go with you," she snapped, "I'm right in the middle of work!"

The chunin (not suprisingly) appeared unphased by her outright hostility: "I appologise, but the representatives have traveled a long way for the sole purpose of examining your baby."

Takara could feel her insides rumbling like a heavily shaken can of cola about to explode; she had absolutely no words for this insufferable person. She wished she had the 'representatives from Leaf' standing in front of her at that moment, she would have shouted at them from the top of her lungs in front of the entire lunch crowd and all of Kusa and told them exactly what she thought of their 'sole purpose' for coming to Grass, and how even though she was never going to hand Souta over to them, perhapse they should contract malaria from Grass Country's formidable mosquito population instead.

Before she had the chance to give any sort of response to the tactless man before her, however, she was abruptly beaten to the punch as two large, burly hands from behind landed themselves roughly on the messenger's shoulders. Kaemon's gravelly voice was calm, but the menace in his tone was unmistakable as he leaned down toward the younger ninja's ear.

"Maybe you didn't hear Takara-san very clearly - she's busy right now; so what you need to do is go back and tell those representatives they might as well get comfortable. Takara-san will meet with them when she's finished tending to her regular responsibilities, understand, Keiji-kun?"

"Ah, pardon me K-Kaemon-sempai," the flustered kohai stammered, stubbornly attempting to stand his ground, "but I was sent here by Shimeji-sama to-"

"Then tell him the same thing," interrupted the special jounin, "I'm sure he'll understand."

"I can't just tell Shimeji-sama that!"

"Yo, what's up?" Without warning, Asa and one of the regular kunoichi from wall guard were standing on either side of the waitress, staring down the obstinant chunin. It was with some shock that Takara suddenly became aware that she had mysteriously aquired a posse.

The Village Head's guard took a deep breath as he looked placatingly around at the growing crowd, "If you please, I'm just trying to do my job!"

"Hey," a shrill, cracking voice presently called out from the direction of the kitchen, "is there some kind of problem out here?" Hiro, not waiting for an answer, was already striding toward the group of people, his hot brown eyes locked in on the presumptuous guard. "_You_, stop harassing Takara and get outta my diner before I throw you out!"

The not quite fifteen-year-old genin stood inches from the elite hand-chosen guard's face, his expression begged the far more skilled ninja to disobey his orders.

The unfortunate messenger, facing quite possibly the most powerful outpouring of resistance he'd ever encountered - at least from his fellow Grass nin - gazed discomfittedly around at the unfriendly faces, then set his own coutenance back into an unreadable poker face.

"Very well, I will inform the Village Head and the representatives of your decision, Takara-san."

As the bearer of bad news turned to leave, the server belatedly began to wonder if refusing the summons of the Village Leader was really such a good idea after all. She waffled for a moment, before calling after the guard's retreating back, "I-It's just that there isn't anyone else here to work accept for Hiro and I - otherwise I would go with you..."

"Don't worry about him, Takara-san," assured Kaemon, "that fellow's head is denser than the fog in Cloud Village; Shimeji sama understands that you have to work - besides, those bastards from Leaf aren't going anywhere."

"I'd like to have one of those snooty representatives in front of me right now, I'd give them some Grass hospitality to take back home with them," declared Hiro to a few mutters of agreement.

Despite herself, Takara couldn't help the grateful smile that spread over her weary face.

"Don't let it get to you," Asa put in, placing an encouraging hand on her shoulder, "I really don't see how Konoha has a leg to stand on."

The troubled mother could only hope he was right.

000

The remainder of Takara's work day was bearable soley because of the reinforcement she recieved from their numerous patrons, all of whom had also heard about the unwelcome arrivals from Konoha. Before very long, however, lunch hours drew to a close and she was left to collect her son from Hakuai and make the long fateful walk to the Village Head's office.

She attempted to keep herself in good spirits, playing with and talking to Souta as she went, trying to put off as much as possible the gnawing anxiety that had been building up within her chest for over a week. The baby boy babbled happily, seeming to sense none of his mother's inner turmoil as he enjoyed what appeared to him as merely another one of their pleasant outings. She held the child closer as they approached the looming building as if to shield him from a sleeping beast that might awake at any moment and devour him from her arms.

The moment she stepped inside, Takara had no time to collect herself before the receptioninst, upon spotting her, instantly ushered the civilian into Shimeji's office.

The first thing to catch the wary mother's attention was the presence of three strangers as she entered the room. Upon examination, the woman realized with little suprise that each one bore the famous white eyes posessed by members of the Hyuuga clan, and for a split second she was overcome with nostalgia for the fleeting time she'd spent with Tenmei.

"Takara-san, thank you for coming; please allow me to introduce our visitors," The Village Head stood and gestured to the two men and one woman who also rose to their feet to greet the new arrivals. "This is Hyuuga Hiashi, the leader of Hyuuga clan."

The man in the center, a severe, lordly individual who appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties, gave a short bow to the red-head. She returned the gesture automatically.

"And these are two other members of his clan: Hiashi-san's personal assistant, Akiko-san," here the woman bowed, and gave Takara a genuine smile, "and Youta-san - the operative responsible for first spotting Souta."

Takara felt her stomach wrench. The cold white eyes of the instigator gazed unappologetically back, his mouth twisted into an insolent smirk as he also dipped his head toward her. Only the baby's brief grunt of discomfort brought her back to her senses long enough for her to realize she was clutching him too tightly.

"Youta was on assignment to check over the surrounding area after that altercation that happened a little over a year ago when several our village's ANBU opperatives were chased into Kusagakure," explained Hyuuga's leader, possibly noting the woman's reaction to the man in question. "The discovery of the child was merely by chance."

The unappeased mother simply gave a rigid nod while still holding Souta protectively against her.

"Please have a seat, Takara-san," Shimeji gestured to a chair across from the representatives on the other side of his desk. "I realize this must be a difficult task for you, but I assure you that Hiashi-sama merely wants to examine your son for the time being - simply to know whether he even has the ability of the byakugan."

Takara glanced back in the direction of the three; Hiashi's stern expression could have been disapproving, but it was difficult to tell. Meanwhile, the narrow eyes of Youta were fixed squarely on the back of her baby's head. The woman known as Akiko merely stared down at the floor in front of her.

"Yes well," began the clan head to the village head, "as we've already been waiting for a while now, perhapse we can move forward with the matter at hand." He cast his gaze over to mother and child, "If you would please turn the baby toward us."

Takara gave an inquiring glance at Shimeji who nodded for her to do as requested. Reluctantly, the waitress lifted the boy in her lap and sat him facing out toward his awaiting audience. The six-month-old stared wonderingly around at the strange people and surroundings as every eye in the room stared right back at him; all at once he seemed to grow uncomfortable at the excessive attention and attempted to wriggle back around to the security of his mother's bosom.

"My, what a pretty shade of blue," mused the Hyuuga assistant mildly.

The leader of of the clan grunted noncommitally.

"Well, Hiashi-sama, what do you gather," Shimeji inquired of the cryptically quiet man.

Hiashi, whose frowning face had shown no variation throughout the meeting so far, continued to maintain the same severe expression as he spoke, "From external appearances alone, the eyes point to the presence of byakugan, however in order to know the full extent of the child's potential we must perform a more thorough examination."

Takara wondered with growing dread what such an 'examination' would entail and braced herself to get between these ninja and her baby if necessary, however, the only move Hiashi made was a simple chakara-molding gesture she'd seen other ninja perform on numerous occasions. Suddenly, the veins burst forth around his colorless eyes, startling her. Takara sat frozen, her fingers twined securely around Souta's midsection as the clan leader directed his intense gaze at the little boy who was still trying distressfully to get back into his mother's arms.

Moments passed, but at last the veins receded back into his temples and Hiashi sat back with a look of satisfaction on his grim face.

"Have you finished," inquired the village head with mild suprise.

"As expected, the child indeed has the potential to activate byakugan," the Hyuuga leader stated.

Takara felt the knot in her stomach clench tighter as Souta finally succeeded in sqirming out of her grip and away from the white stares across from them. She had neither the desire nor the emotional fortitude to ask any futher questions concerning her son's future plans as Hyuuga saw them.

"You're certain of this," Shimeji asked the other leader soberly.

Hiashi shot the village head a somewhat indignant look, "Of course."

The middle-aged Commander of Kusa released a deep sigh and gingerly rubbed his ample forehead, "Then I suppose the next thing we need to discuss is what agreement our two villages can come to concerning where he'll stay."

The three visiters stirred slightly at this statement. "There really isn't anything to discuss," replied Hiashi loftily, "the infant must be taken to Konoha and raised as a Hyuuga."

"_You can't_," shouted Takara without thinking, she flew to her feet, gripping the startled and now crying Souta protectively.

"Takara-san, please," Shimeji held a hand up toward her, indicating that she should sit down and be still. He turned an irritable expression on Hiashi, "I don't think now is the time to be making snap decisions concerning the lives of a very small child and his mother; after all, we don't even have the consultation of the Hokage on this matter."

"Nevertheless," answered the head of Hyuuga dispassionately, "the Hokage will agree with me on this - Konoha cannot afford for the secrets of byakugan to fall into the hands of our enemies - that is why we guard it so carefully."

Takara, now working hard to soothe the still weeping Souta, allowed for the man's words to sink in for a moment. Through her distress, she paused to consider how this was affecting Tenmei wherever he was; the way Hiashi-sama spoke, she was fairly certain he would be considered a traitor by his obviously ruthless clan - but how did they treat traitors? Souta's pale eyes were peering tearily up at her as his crying subsided, and her thoughts shifted to the plight of the unknowing baby: what did having byakugan mean for his future? Never had she imagined what a curse simply being born with a kekkei genkai actuallly was.

"That remains to be seen, with all due respect," said the Village Head, "I, on the other hand would like to propose that the baby remain in Grass where he was born. You may monitor him periodically if you wish, but our village, though small, is plenty capable of overseeing his protection."

Hiashi, however, would not budge, "Once again, it is out of the question for him to remain here - it is a law that everyone with the Hyuuga blood-inheritance must reside within the walls of Konoha."

"Of course, Souta-chan would be very well taken care of," put in the clan head's personal assistant, looking compassionately in Takara's direction.

"Why wouldn't he be," the red-haired woman quickly retorted, "if Souta has to live in Leaf Village, then I'm comming too - I'm his mother!"

"Getting your citizenship transferred to Fire - that's easier said than done," remarked the man responsible for exposing her son to Leaf in the first place, snarkily.

Takara met his gaze, her cool blue eyes suddenly flashing fire, she would have called down flesh-eating locusts from the sky to devour him, starting with those arrogant, empty, spying white orbs of his if she could have.

"In that case," Shimeji supplied, turning a much more subtle, yet no less frightening look on the pompous operative, "it doesn't seem that a decision will be reached today - you're going to need the backing of a higher authority before I'm willing to discuss taking the baby out of Grass."

The Head of Hyuuga did not look at all pleased (not that he ever had in the first place) at this statement. "Very well, if you wish to needlessly prolong this process - but I assure you it will make no difference in the results."

The meeting adjourned, the three representatives rose to leave Shimeji-sama's office for the evening, each giving the Grass Leader and Takara a dutiful bow before retiring. Though the assembly had been fairly brief, the troubled woman was feeling more haggard and desperate than ever before. She didn't know what to do or say as she turned dull eyes toward the Village Head - so weary was she of having her and her son's future decided by everyone accept herself.

The Head gave her an attempt at an encouraging smile, and urged her to not to be discouraged. Takara, however, was too numb to feel much of anything, though it was still an improvement to the nearly constant anxiety she'd endured for the past several days. She almost felt resigned at that point - though not quite - the appeal to give up hope was strong. It was only hours later as she lay down to sleep, watching Souta's tiny chest rise and fall in slumber, that her dulled heart began to thaw and her tearducts to flow freely once again.

000

"Are you ready, Takara-san," asked Akiko as the group gathered round the entrace of Kusagakure.

"Um, yes," the other woman responded distractedly, reaching out to take Souta back from Hakuai.

Her friend pulled the red-head into a tight hug as she passed the baby over to his mother, "Please be careful on your journey, Takara."

"I will, thank you." She turned her attention to Hiro who hung back with a look of contrived disinterest, "Well, aren't you going to wish me luck?"

"Yeah, good luck," he shrugged, without turning toward her.

"Thanks," she smiled and put her arms around him.

The young man let out a heavy sigh, reluctantly placing his lean, brown hand on her back, "Just have a safe trip and get back soon."

"Yeah," she agreed around the knot forming in her throat. She took a deep breath of her own as she released him, blinking away the residual tears. Now fully composed once more, she turned from her gathering of friends and headed over to join the group of Leaf ninja.

The initial three Leaf representatives had, in the past several days, increased to include not only the Sandaime Hokage, but also two accompanying ANBU guards. Takara had not been privy to the ensuing discussion between the leaders, but it wasn't long before they reached their inevitabile decision and let her know that Souta would indeed have to leave Grass.

"I deeply appologise," Shimeji-sama had said dejectedly to her, "but Konoha will not budge on the matter, and this village simply cannot afford to make enemies with Fire."

Weeping, Takara conceded that she understood, she didn't want to be responsible for any more trouble and only wanted to be able to go where her son went.

The Hokage was more than willing to allow her to accompany the rest of the group back to Konoha, and even permitted her to stay and make sure that Souta was well taken care of; however, until she became a legitimate citizen of Fire Country she would be unable to recieve support nor secure lodging or employment within Leaf Village. Although the process would take anywhere between several months to over a year, immigrating from Grass Country was the only thing Takara could do now in order to be near her son, and so she intended to begin the process as soon as she reached Leaf's hidden village.

When Hiro had found out about his co-worker's plan, he'd become uncharacteristically quiet. For the last day she'd worked with him he'd said less than five words to her. She got the feeling that her decision had somehow upset him, but even Hiro had to understand her reasoning. She hoped he would eventually come around even as he'd had to do after finding out about her pregnancy.

"Would you like to come with me," asked the woman known as Akiko, "We want to be able to move quickly through this bamboo forest and reach Fire as soon as possible."

"Well, you know there are paths to take," Takara pointed out.

"Yes, but we'll be cutting across them for a large part of the way," explained the thirty-something-year-old assistant, "You can just hold onto Souta-chan, and I'll hold onto you."

Takara looked back one last time to see a growing number of villagers gathered to watch the group leave - many faces were guards from the wall: not many were smiling. She noticed, among them, her long-time customer Kaemon gazing darkly and steadily at the back of Hyuuga Youta's head. Standing several feet away, his younger colleague Asa spoke in a clandestine manner to another guard as they watched the Hokage approach with his personal bodyguards in tow. Even Hakuai's brave smile seemed pained and out of place, while beside her, Hiro simply appeared dejected.

Taking a few steadying breaths, Takara prepared to follow the rest of the company as they passed out of the entrance to Grass Village headed for Leaf. With those few steps, mother and child's fate were now sealed; no matter what happened, from this moment on, hers and Souta's lives were going to change drastically. All she could do was hope and pray she posessed the strength to face whatever was in store for them.

The trip lasted two and a half days - a day longer than it normally would have taken an average group of shinobi to reach Konoha from Kusa, but they were traveling with a six-month-old who frequetly needed to be fed and changed - not to mention the toll of being toted around like a piece of luggage took out on both mom and baby. Eventually, however, the longest journey of both their lives came to a stop at the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

000

Takara couldn't help but be impressed with what she saw; she'd expected Fire Country's hidden village to be large (which indeed it was) but everything else about it was so strikingly different from her own home in Grass. Whereas most of the structures in Kusa were squat and low to the ground or construted from bamboo, the buildings in Leaf were as tall as and often incorporated into easily the most massive trees she'd ever seen. Everything in Konoha - in fact - seemed to have a rounded edge to it - like a whole city carved out enormous tree trunks.

Another aspect of Leaf that caught her eye was the sheer amount and diversity of the people, from the plainest most unassuming individual to some of the most colorful, outrageous-looking characters she'd ever seen. She wondered exactly what the ninja/civilian ratio was here - would she be able to fit in easily?

At the same time a heavy realization abruptly hit her: somewhere in this large town dwelt Souta's father, Tenmei - the fact that he was so near caused her to seriously give pause. Should she even attempt to make contact with the man she'd long ago given up ever seeing again? At the same time, could she now afford to pass up such a glaring opportunity to check up on and actually show their child to him if it were possible? What Tenmei's present feelings were toward his son or toward her she could only speculate, but didn't he have the right to at least see the tiny person that he had a part in bringing into the world?

Latching onto that thought and suddenly running wild with it, a small, irrational voice inside her head began to whisper about possibilities that Takara quickly pushed aside. Still, the thoughts persisted - was it too late for the three of them to become a proper family? Were she to perhapse marry Tenmei, then she could be assured citizenship in Fire Country and Souta could grow up knowing both his parents - it was the ideal situation. Admittedly, they'd only known one another for a brief period, and had since become strangers once again, but Takara's hopeless brain couldn't quite let go of the fantasy. Perhapse they could even grow to truely love each other if only...

She abruptly broke off her train of thought and forced herself back to reality; she couldn't rely on silly dreams to accomplish her goals. Without the luxury of time on her side, she knew she needed to get busy as soon as possible. After checking into her room at the inn, Takara went to find Hiashi-sama's assistant, Akiko, who was waiting for her.

"Well, there isn't much on the agenda today accept to gather the elders together and discuss possible families to adopt Souta," said the Hyuuga woman in a business-like manner.

Takara ignored the churning in her innards at the statement. Of the three clan representatives that first arrived in Kusa, she found Akiko to be easily the most relatable and sympatheic one. However, between Lord Hiashi's almost frigid indifference and Youta's barely veiled contempt, that wasn't necessarily saying much. As far as Takara was was concerned, they were all the enemy for wanting to take Souta away from her, but Akiko, perhapse with her sympathy for the plight of another female, was at least tollerable.

"Souta is free to remain with me as long as I'm here in Leaf, correct," inquired the mother calmly.

"Yes, of course," Akiko nodded.

"In that case, I was wondering if you might direct me to the place where I can begin filling out the proper citizenship papers for this country."

Akiko frowned, "If I were you I would start at the Administration Building."

Takara thanked her and prepared to head for what the assistant described as an unmistakable cluster of large beehive-shaped structures located directly below a mountain bearing the heads of all Konoha's Hokage. Abruptly, she paused and spun back round toward the other woman.

"Akiko-san," she called to the now retreating Hyuuga.

The assistant turned and glanced over her shoulder as the red-head stepped forward uncertainly. Takara hadn't planned on asking anything further and now felt suddenly flustered, "I - ah - I was just wondering - um - well - about Tenmei I guess..."

The other woman continued to stare blankly back.

"I was wondering if you could tell me where he is now," she pressed on, "I mean I don't know anything about what happened to him after he left Grass all those months ago."

Akiko's expression slowly grew more pensive, a wrinkle creasing her puckered brow. "Well, I can't say I actually know everything that's happened to him since you last saw him; I don't..."

"What about since Leaf found out about Souta - he does know about Souta doesn't he?"

"Uh, yes, he does," replied the white-eyed woman uncomfortably.

Takara opened her mouth, paused, then said, "It may be none of my business, but might I ask how his relationship is with your clan after all that's taken place?"

Akiko blinked as if something small and irritating had flown into her eye, she did not meet the younger woman's gaze, "That's not really something I can discuss, however he is no longer residing in the Hyuuga compound."

"I see," nodded Takara, shifting Souta over to her other arm, "well, thank you anyway; I won't waste any more of your time."

000

To say she had a difficult time finding her way around the large and imposing Administration Buildings with their numerous offices and divisions was putting it mildly. Takara felt like she used up half the day simply trying to figure out where she was supposed to go, meanwhile toting an increasingly cranky infant around with her.

After finally managing to find the correct office and filling out the paperwork, all the while trying to keep Souta from sqirming out of her lap or devouring whole sheets of paper before she could even begin writing on them (she only hoped the drool wouldn't be too noticable once it dried) the exhausted Grass resident plopped herself down on a bench with a long sigh. While relishing the feeling of relief radiating from her grateful feet, Takara fished through the baby's tote bag for his bottle.

"Come on, Souta, are you hungry?" The tearful boy turned toward her and took the proffered object, sucking it gratefully. She idly twirlled his tuft of red hair round her finger as she watched him drink, likewise the baby reached out a tiny hand and grabbed a strand of his mom's curls, giving them a contented tug.

Once his hunger had been largely sated, she decided she probably ought to do something about her own as well. "Maybe we should go get some dumplings - how does that sound to you," she asked the now smiling Souta. "Yeah, I thought you might like that; what kind do you want, anko?"

She stood with Souta clasped at her side, preparing to head for the tea stand she'd noticed earlier. The streets of Konoha were crowded - at least to her they were. Everybody seemed to have business to attend to or something important to do; the atmosphere was definitely more fast paced than what she was used to in Grass. Takara paused to once again take in the sight of so many diverse people:

She now observed the progress of a particularly large man (both in height and girth) with a shock of crimson hair similar in color to her own, yet wild and cascading down his armor-clad back. As he walked, he towered over his two companions like the Hokage Monument over Konoha's Administration Buildings. Seconds later, a girl with a pate of cherry-blossom colored hair (chasing after a towheaded boy in a bright orange tracksuit and shouting _baka _at the top of her lungs) shot past Takara, going down the opposite side of the thoroughfare. An amused grin spread slowly across Takara's face despite herself as she watched them pass.

All at once, another sight immediately attracted her attention and Takara's stomach gave a sudden lurch as her roaming glance caught the retreating form of an individual with unmistakable salmon-brown tresses atop a lean frame. Could she possibly have glimpsed that person?

Perhapse she really was allowing her fantasy-prone mind to run away with her - how many people in the entire village of Leaf owned hair that color and a body-shape similar to her old Konoha flame? Probably dozens at least...still what if it _were_ him? Takara gasped as the mysterious, rapidly moving person vanished, swallowed up by the crowded street.

Her feet immediately began to move without her permission. Impulsively, she dove into the sea of bodies, craning to see over the tops of heads, but like an incompetent swimmer, soon found herself struggling uselessly against the turbulence.

Takara's budding hope was quickly quenched by a deep disappointment that suprised even her - she hadn't realised how much she'd actually wanted to see him. She stood inert for a moment, not caring that she was in the middle of high pedestrian traffic. Staring dully around, she presently noticed something that suddenly spurred her back to life. Only a few yards away stood an apartment building perched advantageously on a large knoll with a second storey balcony. Takara scurried over to the structure and climbed the stairs, her eyes once again sweeping the street in search of the elusive odd-colored head.

"Can I help you," a voice from behind her said without warning. Starting, the woman quickly spun around to see a young man with hair the shade and appearace of seaweed hanging down over his eyes; he sat leaning out of his open window, a cigarette dangled from the fingers of his extended hand.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she exclaimed, flusteredly, "I was just - um - trying to find someone down on the street; I didn't realise anyone was - sorry, I'll just be going..."

The man's bemused face abruptly split into a large grin, "That's okay, I don't mind!"

"R-really?"

"Sure, go right ahead," he waved his cigarette dismissively, "it seems important."

"Th-thank you very much," she bowed before whirling back to scan the street once again. She searched for what must have been ten minutes, but could find no trace of the man that she may or may not have seen in the first place down below. Takara at last let out a defeated sigh.

"No luck," asked the man from the window.

She shook her head slowly, "No, it doesn't look like it; maybe I was wrong about seeing him in the first place. I'm really sorry to have bothered you."

"No problem," he shrugged, "sorry you couldn't find who you were looking for."

The woman gazed glumly down at the yawning Souta, "Yeah, thanks for letting me use your porch anyway; I guess I'd better get going."

The green-haired man nodded; he glanced briefly down at the rapidly wilting infant, "Cute kid."

000

Takara sat at the counter of the tea stand, sipping quietly from her cup. On her lap, Souta nibbled contentedly on a dumpling. Soon she would head back to the inn and meet up with Akiko or someone else from Hyuuga who would update her on their latest plans for her son. She only wished the naturalization process didn't have to take so long - she didn't want to have to leave her baby for even a second in the hands of some stranger.

Now that Souta had had his snack, he was even more drowsy than before, and his mother scooped him up to let him lay his head on her shoulder. She stood and prepared to leave, then had to reorient herself to the different surroundings in order to remember which direction the inn was located. After a long pause, she decided to go straight. The streets were suddenly much less crowded and now took on a different appearance to her unacquainted eye. Thinking there was a turn she was supposed to take soon, the woman began glancing to her left. She knew if she could just find her way back to the Administration Building, then she could find the inn.

Taking the first intersecting street, Takara decided to simply keep walking until she saw something familiar or could ask someone for directions. Before long, she found herself in the middle of a subdivision and became quickly distracted looking at houses. Images of herself dwelling in some of the nicer abodes she encountered along the way popped unbidden into her head as she found herself wistfully house-hunting. Realistic or not, her fantasies were atleast something pleasant to dwell on.

She glanced down to ask Souta his opinion on a quaint yellow cottage that had caught her eye, but the small boy was already dead to the world and snoring softly on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she sighed, "We really should be getting back before all those annoying people start to wonder where we are." A miscevious smirk slowly spread over her face, "Unless, you'd rather we just make a break for it now, huh? What do ya say, Souta, maybe we could find a nice little place somewhere out in River Country - just the two of us? I'll bet they'd never be able to track us down with their super-power eye jutsu."

"Oh I think you'd be suprised," Admonished a familiar voice out of nowhere.

Takara froze, not daring to move lest she accidentally break whatever enchantment she now found herself under.

Suddenly, materializing at her side like some sort of street illusionist, was the man she'd hoped to glimpse ever since reaching Leaf. Hyuuga Tenmei looked almost exactly as she'd remembered him from over a year ago - accept he now wore civilian clothes in place of his flak jacket and ninja gear, without which his frame seemed even slimmer than she remembered. His face, although smiling, appeared strained as if stretched into an expression it was no longer accustomed to. He stood beside her, but made no move to approach or embrace her in any way.

After several moments of the two dumbly staring at each other in the strained silence, the woman finally found her voice. "I - I don't believe it; I thought I saw you on the street, but then you were gone, so I figured I must be halucinating."

He shook his brownish head somewhat sheepishly at this, "No, it was me; I noticed you and I guess I wasn't quite ready to meet with you just yet...sorry."

"Oh," the red head nodded, "of course; I understand - I mean, it's not like I really expected to see you at all while I was here anyway. Konoha is such a big village..." She glanced uncomfortably around and abruptly remembered that she was holding Souta.

"I assume," she continued nervously, "that you know about why I'm here, then?"

His eyes traveled briefly to the baby slumped over her shoulder and he gave a faint nod.

"Um, this is Souta," Takara hastily patted the boy on the back, "sorry he isn't awake right now for you to meet him."

"No, it's fine," waved off Tenmei, he then cleared his throat awkwardly, "so the fact that you're here must mean that he's got byakugan after all."

"Yeah," she sighed, "they're making him live in Konoha - some rule of your village or clan."

"Right," he agreed in a rueful tone.

"But," the woman paused, she looked concernedly into his pupiless orbs, "what about you, Tenmei; what are you doing now?"

He gave a hollow laugh, "What has _Hyuuga_ done about me, you mean?"

Takara knew that her face was beet-red, yet this did not seem to amuse the man as it had so often in the past, "Is it bad?"

"Well, let's just say I'm no longer welcome at the family reunions."

She hung her head, "Tenmei, I'm so sorry to hear that."

Brushing aside her sympathy, he brusquely changed the subject, "So what are you going to do now, Takara; move to Leaf?"

"Well, I want to - I mean I will - I just have to get my citizenship to Fire taken care of in order to be official..." Takara's mind abruptly began drifting like a boat without an anchor at the thought; considering her cost of living so far, she didn't know how long she could actually afford to stay within the village, and she didn't know how she'd survive if she had to leave her baby and go back to Grass.

"Takara?"

"Huh," she started. She suddenly realized she had tears rolling down her cheeks. "Sorry," she appologised, dashing away the streaks of moisture, "I don't know what's wrong with me."

Tenmei gave her a small yet genuine smile. "He's got your hair I've noticed," he said at last, gesturing toward the baby's swooping scarlet mohawk.

She laughed, "And your eyes, of course - well, accept that they're slightly bluer."

The man nodded, "That's nice."

"Tenmei..."

"What is it?"

"I've missed you."

The two looked at one another for a long moment. When he made no reply, she continued, her heart pounding faster, "I don't know how it's been for you, but I've thought about you a lot over the past."

"Well, it must have been difficult caring for a baby all by yourself," he slowly conceded.

Takara unconciously stroked the sleeping child's back as she spoke, "It certainly hasn't been without its challenges - especially on my salary, but I have no regrets - and we've managed."

"I'm glad to hear that."

He appeared to think hard for a few seconds before he spoke again, "You don't need to worry, though; I'm sure Hyuuga will see to it that he's taken care of."

"I don't want Hyuuga to take care of my baby!"

Tenmei looked back at her, startled; Takara herself was suprised by the force of her unintentional outburst, but immediately felt a wave of relief wash over her as she uttered the declaration. She needed to get these painful emotions off her chest, and all at once, words began to tumble from her lips. "I don't care where I live, but I want to raise my child - I want him to know who his mother is. Even though they agreed to bring me to Leaf, I don't get the feeling that your clan really wants me here, and they're certainly not about to lift a finger to help me establish myself in this country...I don't know what to do!"

The white-eyed man merely inclined his head in a weary sort of way, and Takara got the impression that he could relate. After all, hadn't the same people also cast him aside and shunned him - one of their own?

She let out heavy sigh, "I'm sorry to bog you down with all of my problems - you obviously have plenty of your own."

"Why didn't you ever tell me about him," he blurted out, casting a glance toward the baby on her shoulder.

The woman was taken aback, "What?"

"Was it because you knew they'd come to take him?"

"No," she shook her head vigorously, "I had no idea they'd do anything like this, I just didn't know how to contact you or what to even say. I didn't want you to feel like I expected you to do anything for me; I realize that a few days together doesn't constitute a relationship." Gently, she lifted the increasingly heavy boy and nestled him comfortably in her arms, looking steadily back at the Hyuuga, "If you were to become involved with Souta, I'd want it to be because you wanted to."

Takara could feel her heart hammering in her chest as she held his snowy gaze meaningfully in her own. At last it was Tenmei who broke eye contact. "You should know...that I'm married."

Her breath involuntarily caught; she got the sensation she'd suddenly been doused in ice water.

"At least," he continued while fixating on his sandals, "I was; my wife wants a divorce."

"I had no idea - you never said anything about being married."

He made no attempt at defending himself while he meekly withstood her accusing glare, "You're right, I didn't."

Grappling with all the torrential emotions within her, Takara attempted to supress the flaring anger and hurt that rose up at this new revelation. She slowly returned her gaze to the slumbering face of her son as he lay peacefully in the crook of her arm, and thought about what the future might possibly have in store for him. Souta's best interest was something she'd do anything to ensure, so it was with tremendous effort that she swallowed her injured pride and looked back up at the ever astonishing man in front of her.

"So what will you do now?"

Casting his eyes back to the ground, Tenmei gave a listless shrug. "Whatever I need to do in order to survive without the support of the clan I suppose."

"Do you have any other children - besides Souta that is?"

She thought she detected the slightest flinch cross his placid features, "No."

"I see." Takara could feel her natural frankness taking over even as the words came fast and free, "Listen, Tenmei, I know it's been a long time since we've seen each other or had any sort of contact at all, and also that a lot has happened to both of us since then. We may not know each other any more - or maybe we never really did, but perhapse...maybe we still could..."

He opened his mouth to interrupt, but she quickly pressed on, her urgency rising. She knew this was her one and only chance to express her desires to him, and she had to make it count. "I also realise that your marriage is coming to an end, and that you probably aren't ready for some forgotten fling like me to come waltzing back into your life, but two things at least are true: our son will have to live in Konoha, and I want to be with him. I also would like to know you, and I'd like Souta to know his father..."

With the Hyuuga's mysterious eyes staring back like a blank sheet of white paper, Takara's courage rapidly began to wain and she lost the nerve to finish her thought.

"You want me to marry you so that you can become a citizen and stay with your baby," he finished helpfully.

The woman glanced away, painfully aware of how crass the statement sounded on his prim mouth. "That isn't all there is to it...but it would mean I'd be able to find a job and begin supporting myself and Souta; I don't expect you to do anything for me - not if you didn't want to."

"Takara..."

She could hear the pained tone of pity creeping into his voice as her hopes slowly began to unravel. She'd tried so hard not to appear desperate - to appeal to his desire to know their son, but the truth glared through her denial like the sun through a cloud break. Tenmei didn't want anything to do with Souta or, most likely, her either.

"Can't you help me," she pleaded, trying heedlessly to reach whatever sense of responsibility he might feel toward the child he'd helped in concieving, "I wouldn't be asking such a thing if it weren't extremely important - over the past almost year-and-a-half have I ever asked you for _anything_?"

For a moment it looked as if her guilt trip might be working as the man's glance darted from her to the baby and uncomfortably away again.

"It wouldn't have to be anything other than a sham mariage if you wanted - I would understand if you didn't want to live with me or have anything to do with Souta, but if you _did_ want to be a family... if you ever cared anything about me, then please help me become a citizen!"

The silence between them for several moments was deafening. Takara held the reluctant Tenmei firmly within her cerulean gaze. However, on the inside, she was a flag twisting violently in the wind, tethered to him as to a teetering pole while she awaited his response. At last, he returned her awaiting stare; his lips slowly parted to deliver his decision.

Takara held her breath.


	7. News From Abroad

CHAPTER SEVEN

News From Abroad

The day, it seemed, was going to be interesting - which, in itself, suited the red-head just fine; she felt she could use a distraction from her own troubles. The subject of the ruckus about town, however, was one that struck something of a chord for her. Yet another altercation between Leaf and Grass had sent the people of Kusa into an uproar.

A little over a month had passed since her conversation with Tenmei took place on that afternoon in one of Konoha's subdivisions; she'd since returned to Kusagakure, back to her job and her appartment - without her baby.

Giving up Souta had been every bit as hard as she'd know it would be - even if it was only temporary. To hell with those Hyuuga bastards; she wasn't about to roll over and let them take _her_ child away. She fully intended to gain her citizenship to Fire, after which she would take on whoever she had to in order to get her son back. Thinking and focusing on these things was all that kept Takara going through most days - that and keeping herself busy working at the diner.

Since coming back, she'd given up her place beside the Village Wall - opting for an appartment next door to Hiro and his mother. She'd needed the change of scenery, and having the support of her friends helped her to keep up a positive demeanor in the face of all the overwhelming adversity currently taking place in her life.

"I wish we could see what was going on," huffed Hiro, craning his neck toward the shouting taking place further down the road near the courthouse.

"Why, it sounds like it's just an angry mob," the woman replied as she stacked bowls disinterestedly.

The tousled-haired brunet whipped around to gape at her, "What are you saying; those arrogant Leaf scum think they can get away with murder - literally, and that we Grass-nin aren't going to do anything about it!"

With her back turned to him, Takara silently rolled her eyes. Ever since the arrival of the Hyuuga leader and Hokage, and the subsequent taking of Souta, all of Grass Village's collective ire had begun to reawaken against the powerhouse that was Konohagakure. While the waitress deeply appreciated the outpouring of support that she'd recieved upon returning home, any reminder of the large ninja village or her experience while there still felt like salt rubbed in her emotional wounds.

Takara's own mis-encounter with Leaf policies aside, Grass' already growing antipathy toward their neighbor and ally had abruptly exploded when a Konoha shinobi had been recently apprehended for assasinating a prominent politician from Kusa. According to the buzz about town, the preliminary hearing for the accused was being held that day. A team of Leaf-nin escorting a criminal defense lawyer had already arrived earlier.

More than likely due to the fiasco taking place over at the courthouse, business had been slow all day. She wondered if they were going to get any customers at all, if not there wasn't much reason for them to remain open.

Just as she was getting ready to tell Hiro to start shutting down the kitchen, the sound of distant shouting suddenly seemed to grow louder. Takara glanced up from cleaning even as Hiro clambered out ot the kitchen for his long awaited better look. From a distance down the road, a small crowd emerged through a gap in the surrounding buildings.

"Go home, Leaf-nin," a voice shouted distinctly.

Unwillingly leading the procession, strode an anxious-looking shinobi wearing the familiar Leaf-style flak jacket - a large wolf-like dog trotted close beside him. The more the ninja attempted to ignore the jeers flung at him, the more it seemed to inflame the aggression of the antagonists.

Even while the woman held little love for Leaf ninja in general, she found the display before her to be in very poor conduct unbefitting of any self-respecting Grass-nin; she only hoped that she didn't know any of the participants. Upon their approach, she noticed (unsuprisingly) that the majority of the group was made up of genin and youths - the target himself appeared to be only a teenager a little older than Hiro. Was this, she wondered, one of the guards sent to escort the Fire attourney to Grass?

Violence seemed imminent, and at last broke out as one of the young ne'er-do-wells picked up and lobbed a stone at the lone foreighner. The rock flew fast and accuratly, colliding with the back of the boy's neck and sending him crashing to the ground. His dog companion immediately leapt on the defensive; hunching protectively over the downed shinobi it growled menacingly at the unruly crowd. The struck nin, however, brisquely picked himself back up and now faced his atttackers with a ready stance of his own.

"Get out of here," he snarled, posing as if ready to take on the whole group along with his dog.

"Hiro," Takara gasped, grasping the young man's shoulder, "this is getting serious; what should we do?"

Hiro grunted darkly, but before he could think of an actual response the problem seemed to already be resolving itself. The foreighner's sudden aggression effectively dispelled whatever bravado the collective youths posessed; they ceased thier taunts and slowly began backing off.

With a smoldering expression the Leaf ninja watched the mob disperse. Takara couldn't be sure but she thought she noticed something strange like veins running across his face. She pondered this as she watched the young man turn away in order to retrieve the hitai-ate that had fallen from his forehead upon his impact with the ground. The gathering of genin now thoroughly scattered, he and his dog started walking once again.

"Well," Takara relased the breath she'd been holding, "that was close."

"Don't look now, but he's coming this way," muttered Hiro, turning to head back into the kitchen.

She returned her glance toward the strange ninja who indeed seemed to be headed for their cafe. "Well that's good: he'll be our first customer all day."

Hiro stuck his head out to stare at her incredulously, "Are you kidding; you're actually gonna serve him?"

"Sure if he's got money - why wouldn't I?"

Takara watched as the young man approach and it soon became even more apparent that she hadn't been mistaken about what she'd thought she'd seen earlier. A pair of eyes the color of palest amethyst peered back from the face of the quickly advancing visitor; this kid was definitely a Hyuuga.

She hesitated only a second before hastily plastering on a smile, "Good afternoon, sir."

"Yeah, hi," he responded somewhat distractedly, giving his surroundings another cautious glance before taking a seat at the furthest end of the counter. He looked briefly down, presumably at the large dog by his feet, before raking the fingers of one hand through his medium brown hair. Takara could plainly see the ominous green manji adorning his forehead before the whispy locks fell back down to cover it once again.

"Would you like a menue," she asked him.

"Um, do you have ramen," inquired the Hyuuga, now refastening his forehead protector.

"Sure, what flavor?"

000

The young man (whose name was Soushi as it turned out) was different than others of his clan that she'd come into contact with so far. Perhapse it was because of his age, but he seemed considerably less pretentious and austere; instead he was down to earth and sociable - more like the people of Grass. Much to her suprise, Takara was actually enjoying talking with him.

"This guy here is the companion of my team mate," he currently gestured to the beast sitting calmly beside him on the other side of the counter, "she let me borrow him, and now I'm kind of glad she did." He reached down and ruffled the dog's shaggy head affectionately.

"Well, I have to appologise on behalf of those delinquents, people in this village usually aren't so badly behaved."

The youth shrugged dismissively as he slurped up the end of his noodles, "It's a controversial trial I suppose."

"Even so," she insisted, "It really has nothing to do with you."

From the kitchen she thought she could hear Hiro slamming dishes around a little harder than usual. She wondered if it had anything to with the Leaf ninja's presence.

"Ah well, I probably should be heading back to my post now, but I'll be sure and let everyone else know that they can eat here."

"Definitely," she smiled, "we could use the business."

With one final wave, the shinobi turned to head back the direction he'd come in, his shaggy, wolfish dog trotting close beside him.

"I really don't believe you," commented Hiro, having suddenly emerged from the kitchen the moment their patron was no longer in sight. "How could you treat that guy like he was just another customer; I doubt any other self-respecting eatery in this entire village would allow the likes of him to even darken their doorway, but here you are - the person who should be most angry at Leaf - feeding and engaging him in friendly conversation!"

"Don't be rediculous, Hiro, why would I turn away any business at this point; besides that, every person that happens to be from Leaf isn't automatically evil."

"Are you kidding me," he cried, flinging his arms dramatically into the air, "I saw those vacant white eyes - he's a part of that clan!"

"So, who cares; I can hardly blame_ him_ for their actions."

"Why not - he's one of them after all."

"Hiro," she huffed, "I really don't need you reminding me of what happened; I was there."

"Well, I know but-"

"Then just drop it."

"Okay, sorry!"

Takara returned pointedly to cleaning off the counter. She didn't want to be curt with her co-worker, but she had a difficult enough time coping without Souta; she couldn't deal with the current conversation as well.

Meanwhile, if Hiro had been in a bad mood after the arrival of the Hyuuga, then he was more or less beside himself by the end of the day once all of the young man's consecutive teammates had come by to eat as well. All three seemed to Takara like decent, friendly people - especially considering the treatment they'd recieved during their stay in Grass so far. She noticed a few disapproving looks from various passers-by as well as a few less customers, but she didn't see any reason to deny service to perfectly respectable people. To his credit, Hiro managed to keep most of his opinions to himself.

Her mind was still silently reviewing the events of the day as the two of them walked home. As if sensing her pensiveness, or perhapse still too peeved to speak, Hiro remained silent as well. She found herself repeatedly returning to the Hyuuga youth of earlier - he'd given her a good indication that he planned on returning tomorrow. Takara desperately wanted to ask him about Souta, but the likelihood that he would know anything, she realized, was slim. Even so, what could it hurt?

"Mom wants to know if you'll have dinner with us tonight," Hiro now spoke up as they reached the small row of tenant houses that they both occupied.

Takara thought about it for a moment, "Tell her I appreciate the invitation, but I think I'm just going to have leftovers at home," she finally replied.

Hiro frowned, "Are you sure?"

"Yep," she smiled, continuing toward her own door, "I'll see you later, though."

Sometimes she felt as if she depended too much on the two of them since she'd lost Souta; she knew that she had to eventually face the reality of her solitude instead of constantly trying to avoid lonliness. Perhapse she'd even used Souta to some extent as a distraction from that unpleasant feeling she'd carried with her for close to half her life.

On top of everything, there was something else she also needed to do, and she wanted to get started as soon as possible. As soon as she came through the door, Takara immediately made a beeline for her hall closet. Rummaging through boxes and under blankets, she graudually began pulling out odds and ends. The entire process took around forty-five minutes, but finally she'd recovered all the pieces she needed. With a growing urgency, the redhead collected her things and dove into her work.

000

Takara awoke with a jerk at her dining table the following morning to the shrill beep of her alarm clock.

_'How far did I get'_, she wondered blearily as she gazed around at all the scraps scattered over the table. She'd spent the entire evening working to finish the piece; fortunately, she'd bought all the necessary items months ago and had already started preliminary piecing. The finished product was a very simple, small block quilt made up of alternating patterned fabrics which she'd batted and backed last night. Her fingers were still sore from the enourmous amount of stitching she'd completed in such a short period of time.

Takara continued to stare at the baby quilt for a long time; something still seemed to be missing, but she couldn't decide what. She suddenly realized that it was too plain - if she was going to put so much time and love into one object, somehow it needed to have some personal meaning. Her sluggish brain, however, still numb from concentration and sleep deprevation, only drew a blank.

With a long sigh, she stood to stretch her stiff limbs. Strips of little fabric orphans littered the entire area around her. Disliking to leave a mess before she left the house, she slowly began collecting the small shreads off the floor and table before starting to get ready for work. She took the larger scraps and carried them back to the closet where she tried to find the box they'd come from.

While attempting to dislodge one of the containers beneath a larger box, Takara suddenly had to leap out of the way as a small avalanche decended out the door. Grunting laboriously, she stooped down to pick up the mess, tossing it carelessly back into the box when something in particular among the wreckage grabbed her attention without warning.

A disquietingly familiar scroll sat in her palm like a long lost girlhood trinket. Cautiously, as if handling a jagged shard of glass, Takara unrolled the paper and read the words she already knew were there: 'promise kept'.

'..._So don't expect anything else_,' she added bitterly in her head. Her heart thudded fast for several moments as she recalled Tenmei as he'd looked before the entrance to the village. She'd been full of warm feelings when she'd first recieved the cylinder in her hand, now all she felt was biting dissappointment and resentment. Takara considered what she should do with the obsolete message - throw it away... burn it? As if for practice, she cast it carelessly into the brown box with a loud thud, but the action felt hollow and unsatisfying.

She turned back to the little quilt she'd spent all night stitching and thought of her son - what did she want to bestow on Souta through her work? She'd already pored all of her love into the process, but she still needed a finishing touch to personalize it. The realization suddenly dawned on her that she hadn't named the quilt - that must have been what was missing! Any important quilt had to have a name, after all. However now she really had very little time to think of one.

Takara hurried about getting ready and finished with time to spare. She'd tried to come up with something to call the blanket while she was preparing for work, but she couldn't find anything that satisfied her. After wracking her brain, the young red-head finally snatched her curls in both hands with frustration.

"What would I want to say to my baby right now if I could only tell him one thing," she asked aloud. The answer came almost immediately: _I love you _(obviously) but also she wanted to assure him that she'd be with him once again as soon as possible.

Takara briskly switched tracks on her train of thought before she allowed herself to become too bogged down by emotion and set a bad mood for the entire day. However, the following thing to automatically come to mind once again was Tenmei's message to her - a promise. Without warning, inspiration seized the Grass woman and she instantly knew what to dub Souta's quilt.

000

Hiro was the first to greet the visitor from Leaf before she had the chance.

"You again; why do you keep coming back here, anyway?"

Takara jerked quickly to attention, jutting her head out the entryway of the enclosed kitchen. There, only several feet away, stood the hesitant young Hyuuga of the day before.

"Hiro, why don't you take over in here while I see to our customer," said the woman sternly behind the dark-haired youth.

The teenager flinched ever so slightly before reluctantly turning away from the other young male he'd been antagonizing. Wordlessly, he brushed past his boss and stomped his way into the kitchen. Takara rolled her eyes before turning a reassuring smile on the uncertain ninja.

"Welcome back, would you like something to eat?"

"Actually, I was kind of hoping..." he trailed off, returning a grin of his own.

"What'll it be, then?"

"Just the same as yesterday is fine," the young man responded as he finished making his way over and took a seat up at the bar once again.

"Great, I'll get right on that." She turned to tell Hiro the order.

"I got it," he barked at her before she could say anything.

"Great!" And not having any other customers or tasks to take care of, Takara happily turned back to Soushi. "Well, how are things at the court house going this afternoon?"

"Ahh," the youth sighed, "not terribly eventful, but I suppose that's a good thing."

She laughed, "Yeah, especially after yesterday I'd imagine... how is your head by the way?"

Soushi uncosciously brought a hand to the base of his scull, "It's fine; one of my teammates is actually a medic-nin - so she fixed me up pretty good."

"Oh, is she the one with the dogs?"

"Yeah, that's Hana."

From within the kitchen came suspicious grunts and mutters descreetly covered by the occasional clanging and scraping of cookware. Takara shot an irritated glance at the doorway, but the boy she was speaking to merely chuckled.

"Somehow I get the feeling that guy doesn't really like me too much."

"Don't mind him, he has some social issues," she said to their customer in a low voice so as not to be overheard by her irritable co-worker.

The other snorted appreciatively in a very adolecent manner that only reinforced Takara's growing fondness for the kid.

"Thanks again for actually being willing to serve us," said the Hyuuga sincerely, "I just hope we don't hurt your business too badly."

The waitress beamed, "Don't worry about it." She leaned back and took a long, thoughtful look at him - which the young man seemed to notice as he shifted somewhat uncomfortably at the counter.

"Soushi-kun, may I ask you a personal question?"

The teenager looked uncertain but slowly nodded, "I suppose so."

"Well, I was wondering if possibly you'd heard about something that happened recently between our two villages." She fixed him with a scrutinizing look, which he merely returned, and she hesitantly continued, "There was a baby born here from a ninja of Leaf; he was born with a bloodline inheritance and had to be taken to be raised in Leaf Village. Does that sound familiar to you by any chance?"

There was a long pause. "It does sound familiar," The young ninja replied at last.

Takara felt her heartbeat quicken; from within the kitchen she suddenly noticed that Hiro had become quiet.

"It had to do with a member of my clan after all..."

She found herself leaning toward him without intending to, "You really are a Hyuuga, then."

"Uh, y-yeah," he blinked, "how did you know?"

"I've actually met a few people from your clan," she admitted.

"Really?" He seemed suprised.

"Well, only briefly," the woman quickly rectified, "I was just curious if - since you are a member of the same clan - you knew anything concerning the current situation of that baby?"

Soushi's piercing white gaze met her own expectant blue eyes squarely for a brief moment before he finally spoke, "Do you have some sort of special relationship with the baby?"

Takara could feel her throat tighten; she merely nodded her scarlet head.

A small smile appeared on the boy's thin lips as his eyes shifted up to the locks tucked securely into the scarf she held them back with. "I can see now where he gets his hair from."

"Have you seen him," she asked hoarsely.

He nodded. "As a matter of fact, I see him pretty often...my sister, she and her husband, they've adopted him."

Her vision was blurred and for several seconds Takara could say nothing. The only thing keeping her steady was her firm grip on the counter top. Without warning, she felt a hand press against her back and Hiro was suddenly standing beside her. With all of her might, she struggled to compose herself.

"They have?"

"Yeah...they've wanted a baby for a while now, you see; they're really happy they could get him."

"W-what about," she swallowed hard, "him; how is he doing? Is he happy?"

"He smiles a lot - I'm sure he's happy...and he's healthy: Sayuri - that's my sister - says he hardly ever cries."

Takara stared back down at the counter; Hiro's hand still rested between her shoulder blades, sending his silent support into her.

"That's nice to know - thank you - you have no idea how much it means to me to hear that." She looked tearfully up at the boy on the other side of the bar; he was smiling back.

000

Soushi ate his meal, which Takara insisted was complimentary, and prepared to head back to the courthouse once again.

"How much longer do you think you'll be in the village," she asked him.

"I'm not sure," admitted the teen, "possibly until tomorrow, possibly longer, it all depends."

"Well in that case," she scurried out from behind the counter and around to the back of the hut, "I have something to give you; please wait right there!"

She returned a minute later carrying a paper bag, "This is just something that I made for Souta...I was wondering, since you're his uncle now, if you could please make sure he gets it."

The brown-haired boy took the package from her, "may I see it," he asked.

She nodded.

Carefully, he slid the small quilt out of the bag and unfolded it, holding it up for examination.

"I was wondering what was in there," mused Hiro, also staring at patchwork of squares.

"_The Promise Keeper_," Soushi read aloud from the patch at the top left corner, "what's that?"

"The name of the quilt," explained Takara with a smile.

"Oh. Well, I'll definitely be sure he gets it."

"Thank you so much, and please thank your sister and her husband for taking such good care of him for me." She bowed deeply to him.

The ninja thanked her as well for her hospitality and was soon on his way. Not long afterward, his successive teammates began arriving one after another to take their own lunches and Takara was kept busy once again.

She would not see Soushi or his fellow Leaf-nin the following day.

000

"Turned out to be another suprisingly big day in earnings," commented Takara quietly as she and Hiro walked home together later that evening.

"I'm not suprised," the young man remarked dryly, "the way that one fat Leaf-nin was putting away stew he almost made up for the amount of business we lost because he was there."

"I'll say he did," agreed the woman with a laugh.

"I couldn't cook fast enough; I thought we were going to run out of food!"

She looked smugly at her companion, "So, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing they came after all, huh?"

He gave a loud snort, "Hardly!"

"Well," she sighed, still smiling, "I'm glad they came..."

There was a long pause; finally Hiro replied, "I'm glad you were able to learn news about Souta today."

"Yeah... me too."

She could tell that the genin wanted to say something else, but was still deliberating it in his head. "Do you," he finally began, "still plan on moving to Fire Country?"

Takara gave a deep sigh, the events of the day had certainly put a new perspective on the circumstances surrounding her son. On the one hand, simply knowing what had become of Souta - that he'd been placed in a loving home with good people was the greatest releif she could feel. However, she couldn't help but wonder where exactly she would fit into his life now were she to show up in Konohagakure one day. Things had suddenly become so much more complicated!

"I don't know...I mean, I'm happy that Souta is being taken care of, but I still just miss him so much," Takara did her best to keep her voice steady, "I mean, I want him to _know _me, and I want to know him too; I want to be able to see my own child grow up, Hiro!"

Hiro stared soberly at the ground in front of him as he walked beside her, "Yeah, I know."

They continued in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again, "But you know, if for any reason you didn't get to live in Leaf or raise Souta - things'll still be okay."

She turned to him in suprise, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well," he shrugged, still not looking her in the eye, "I mean he'll be okay, and he'll still become a talented ninja one day - and I think that he _will _want to know you too. I guess what I'm saying is, you don't have to worry; he's got a bright future."

"I'm not so much worried about that," she exclaimed, "not anymore...but I still can't help being sad and lonely for him in the meantime - it feels just like a piece of my heart has been ripped away!"

The fourteen-year-old simply nodded. He seemed to have spontaneously sprouted bright red blossoms over both his cheeks, while his mouth hung slightly open like a coin purse with a loose clasp, ready to spill its contents.

"I only wish there was something I could do to help," he finally muttered ruefully.

"It isn't your responsibility," Takara told him.

"But I don't like to see you feeling like this," he insisted, "it bothers me!"

"Look, don't let my problems bog you down; this is just something I have to deal with on my own."

"But your problems _are_ my problems - at least, that's how I feel," the crimson on the boy's face deepened as he abruptly turned to look at her, "I want to see you happy again, Takara!"

The woman stopped short, taken aback by the vehemence of the sudden outburst, "Woah, where did this come from all of a sudden? Are you okay, Hiro?"

The youth began to scrunch up his face and shook his head furiously as if to knock something loose. He then shoved one hand through his pate of unruly dark hair before taking a deep, frustrated breath, "I really hate that white-eyed bastard for treating you like this - you deserve a thousand times better than him!"

Takara blinked in suprise, she hadn't even told him about her unexpected meeting with Tenmei while she was in Konoha. "This doesn't have anything to do with that, though."

"I know that; I'm just saying you do!"

Growing increasingly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking, she thought it wise to quickly change the subject. "We'd better hurry and get home - I have some things to prepare before I come over for dinner tonight."

"Ye-yeah," sighed the youth, rapidly deflating. He faced away from her once again, shuffling several steps ahead.

She watched his stooped back loping steadily in front of her for a moment. "You know, Hiro," she said stepping a little faster to catch up, "you've really done so much to help me - I could never say how much it means to me that we're friends." Lightly, she placed a hand on his lean shoulder and smiled warmly up at him, "So listen to me when I say I really don't want you to be worried about me, okay?"

"Hmph," Hiro crossed his arms, his hardened exterior, which always served him so well, already back in place, "Don't think that you're going to get rid of me anytime soon; I'm here to stay."

Takara laughed, "You say that now, but what happens when you find a cute girl your own age to hang around with - I bet I'll never see you anymore."

Hiro did not laugh. "That won't happen," he declared with such gravity that the smile instantly vanished from her face and she was left staring blankly back. Without another word, the genin, twelve years her junior, continued marching forward.

000

After dinner with Hiro and Hakuai,Takara sat at home with her tired feet soaking in a tub of hot water several hours later. The house was silent as a tomb, leaving her long supressed thoughts free to finally rise up from their dormancy and haunt her with avengeance. The day had indeed been particularly full of enlightening events that now demanded to be processed.

Images of her red-haired, pale-eyed baby flooded her mind, however, in her place, she inadverdently pictured a mysterious Hyuuga woman cradling and caressing her son. She didn't exactly doubt that what Soushi said was true: Souta probably was happy and being well taken care of in Konoha - regardless of how difficult it was for her to concede. Consequently, though, the same troubling question kept recurring: where did she fit into the lovely scenario?

Was it merely her plight to have birthed and loved this child for barely the very first part of his life simply to have him whisked away to be raised and cared for by strangers? Would some other woman be there to see him off on his first day of school, or tend to his scraped knees, meet his first girlfriend? Would she never again be able to stare adoringly into Souta's large, wondering baby gaze? The thought was almost unbearable - she didn't know if she could ever accept that possibility, no matter how selfish it might be.

Truthfully, Takara had no idea what she was supposed to do any more; she felt adrift on a sea of confusion. She only knew what she still wanted more than anything else in the world - to be with Souta. Gradually, her thoughts also turned to Hiro and what he'd said to her earlier that evening - she didn't know what to make of his bold declaration. Letting out a long and very weary sigh, the woman wondered if life would ever be simple again.

A knock at the door suddenly roused her from her inner turmoil, and Takara jumped.

"Be right there," she called, removing her feet from the cooling water and drying them on an awaiting towel. Hastily she padded over to the door and pulled it open a crack, a warm pair of brown eyes under a shock of messy brunet locks greeted her on the other side.

"Hi there, Hiro, is everything alright?"

"You forgot your bag at our house," he replied, holding out a canvas tote that served as her purse/all purpose bag.

"Oh, thanks," she smiled as she took the cloth sack from him. He nodded, but made no move to head back toward his own house; instead, he merely stood in her doorway, akwardly shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "Um, would you like to come in," she finally asked after a moment.

He shook his head mutely, casting his eyes off to the side as he continued to occupy his spot on the welcome mat.

"Okay, well, in that case I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," he answered still without moving. For a few moments, they stood that way in the uncomfortable silence before the grungy young man abruptly cleared his throat, "I just wanted to say - about earlier today - I'm sorry."

"Huh; what are you talking about?"

"When I said that stuff about you not having to move to Leaf, it was selfish of me; you should be with Souta - I guess I just don't like the idea of you leaving." Having blurted out the statement, he finished speaking with another brisk clearing of his throat before he hastily turned on his heal to leave.

"Hey Hiro, wait!"

He paused and turned slowly back around to look at her.

"It's okay; I understand," she sighed, leaning against the door post, "don't worry about it anymore - besides, no matter what happens, we'll always be good friends, I promise."

The young man's face split into a slow grin and he gave her a wave before turning briskly toward home once again.

Takara, smiling herself, shut the door behind her; while still contemplating what she'd told Hiro, she headed back into the small living area. All at once, as she stood in the middle of the tatami, she was struck to the core of her being by the strongest sense of certainty she'd ever felt: instantly, Takara knew she would be with her son again. The red-head couldn't say when or under what circumstances, but somehow, beyond a shadow of a doubt, she was utterly aware of it as fact.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks without her having realised it. She touched her fingertips to them now, unable to wipe the smile off her face even if she'd wanted to. Takara felt the happiest she'd been in over a month, and with the new feeling of peaceful certainty still flowing through her, she quickly rushed over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a pad and pencil. Scribbling furiously, she began to write a letter to her son and his current parents, filling it up with everything she could think of to tell them about how grateful she was to them.

Folding the piece of scrap paper into three sections, the woman clasped it to her chest - having no idea what she should do with it now; it simply felt good to have poured out some of the joy that continued to overflow from the depths of her heart. Tomorrow would be just another day of work, she knew, but she didn't mind, the warm feeling of certainty fortified her.

The futon was calling, so Takara got ready for bed and slid herself between the sheets. She carefully set her writing excercise on the small table beside her before lying down and closing her eyes. Within minutes, she was asleep. She spent the rest of the night dreaming of Souta, of them laughing and living happily together in a little yellow cottage.

_And that's the last chapter! I might also try to write an epilogue. Anyway, just a few interesting tidbits: Kiba's sister is Soushi's teammate (obviously) and the other one mentioned is an Akamichi (I didn't say anything about the final team member...not that it's really important to the story.) _


End file.
